Inpatient Facility Coding & Compliance Alert

Question:  What would be the correct CPT® code(s) for an MRI spine survey?

New York Subscriber

Answer: You won’t find a single code that describes a “total spine” MRI. You may report a code for each region that the radiologist examines. Accordingly, you may report one or more of the following codes: 

• 72141— Magnetic resonance (e.g., proton) imaging, spinal canal and contents, cervical; without contrast material
• 72146 — Magnetic resonance (e.g., proton) imaging, spinal canal and contents, thoracic; without contrast material
• 72148 — Magnetic resonance (e.g., proton) imaging, spinal canal and contents, lumbar; without contrast material.

You may submit all three codes (72141, 72146, and 72148) if the test examined all three spine regions (cervical, thoracic, and lumbar). This is the most appropriate approach when the radiologist performs and interprets an MRI of all three regions. You should also make sure the radiologist dictates separate reports for each separate region studied.

See also the correlated CPT® sequence for the MRIs with contrast (codes72142, 72147, and 72149). On the facility side, these codes all fall into a ‘family’ for which there is a single composite payment under APCs (Ambulatory Payment Classifications).