Neurology & Pain Management Coding Alert

Question: A neurosurgeon requested that our neurologist provide continuous neurological testing while a patient had brain tumor surgery. Our physician spent 1.5 hours in the operating room on the case. Can we bill a consult or other procedure?

Maine Subscriber

Answer: Report +95920 (Intraoperative neurophysiology testing, per hour [list separately in addition to code for primary procedure]), but include the primary procedure code. CPT includes several notes about procedures you could report 95920 with, such as 92585 (Auditory evoked potentials for evoked response audiometry and/or testing of the central nervous system; comprehensive), 95860 (Needle electromyography; one extremity with or without related paraspinal areas) and others.

See the first parenthetical note under 95920 for a full list of accepted primary procedures. None of these is a consultation code, so you-ll report the procedure instead of a consult. Determine the specific service your neurologist performed and report it with 95920.

-- Clinical and coding expertise for You Be the Coder and Reader Questions provided by Laureen Jandroep, OTR, CPC, CCS-P, CPC-H, CCS, CodeRyte Inc. coding analyst and coding review teacher.