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Neurology & Pain Management Coding Alert

Reader Question:

Nerve Conduction Studies and Evoked Potentials

Published on Fri Dec 01, 2000

Question: I have been getting denied payment for tests such as nerve conduction studies and somatosensory evoked potentials, because IME doctors are saying that the tests were performed too soon (or too long) after an injury. What is the proper timing to perform these tests?

New York Subscriber

Answer: For nerve conduction studies (95900, 95903, 95904), somatosensory evoked potentials (95925, 95926, 95927) and similar testing, conventional medical wisdom is that it takes four to six weeks for all the changes to occur in nerve and muscle after an injury. Any examination after that point will be appropriate. There is no time that is too late only a time that is too early.

Answered by Neil A. Busis, MD, chief of the division of neurology and director of the neurodiagnostic laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center at Shadyside in Pittsburgh.
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