Oncology & Hematology Coding Alert

Try your hand at 2 chemotherapy coding challenges.Coding is all about applying standardized code sets to situations that don't always qualify as "standard." The good news is that authoritative coding resources sometimes address even those encounters you don't handle on a daily basis. Test your skills with these two scenarios and see whether your responses match the official rules.1. How Many 'Initial' Codes Are Too Many?Challenge 1: Staff administers a non-chemotherapy therapeutic drug via one IV infusion site, and then following oncologist orders based on protocol, administers chemotherapy intravenously via a second IV site. Should you report the chemotherapy admin or the non-chemotherapy admin as the initial code?Solution 1: Challenge 1 presents a trick question. You should report initial codes for both the chemotherapy and non-chemotherapy infusions.CPT guidelines state, "When administering multiple infusions, injections or combinations, only one 'initial' service code should be reported, unless protocol requires that two separate [...]