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Gastroenterology Coding Alert

Reader Question:

Ultrasound Probe for Liver Biopsy,Paracentesis

Published on Sat Jun 01, 2002

Question: Our practice recently bought an ultrasound probe to mark liver biopsy and paracentesis sites. How should I bill for this? Alabama Subscriber Answer: Code 76942 (Ultrasonic guidance for needle placement [e.g., biopsy, aspiration, injection, localization device], imaging supervision and interpretation) should be used to report an ultrasound probe. Because your practice owns the equipment, you should bill the global code without any modifier. If it didn't, you should add modifier -26 (Professional component) to indicate that you are billing for the physician component of the service only.

The ultrasound probe should be billed in addition to the codes for liver biopsy (47000) and paracentesis (49080 or 49081).  
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