Internal Medicine Coding Alert

Look to 82270 for FOBT coding

Internal medicine coders may feel as if they just got up to speed on Medicare's fecal-occult blood testing (FOBT) codes, and now Medicare has changed them again.

Last April, CMS announced that Medicare carriers would no longer accept 82270 (Blood, occult, by peroxidase activity [e.g., guaiac], qualitative; feces, consecutive collected specimens with single determination, for colorectal neoplasm screening [i.e., patient was provided three cards or single triple card for consecutive collection]) for FOBT services. At the time, Medicare payers would only accept G0107 (Colorectal cancer screening; fecal-occult blood test, 1-3 simultaneous determinations) for this service.

However, CMS has already changed its tune, says Sandra Jongebreur, CPC, CPC-H, GSS, staff associate in patient financial services at Christiana Care Health System in Wilmington, Del. Medicare now wants coders to revert back to 82270.

A new MLN Matters article, MM5292, with an effective date of Jan. 1, 2007, states, "HCPCS code G0107 will be retired at the next annual release of the clinical diagnostic laboratory fee schedule effective Jan. 1, 2007, and replaced with current procedural terminology (CPT) code 82270." Readers can find the article online at www.cms.hhs.gov/MLNMattersArticles/downloads/MM5292.pdf. 

Therefore, if you performed FOBT testing for a patient prior to Jan. 1, you should still report G0107. For service dates on or after Jan. 1, use 82270.