Otolaryngology Coding Alert
Watch Your Modifiers When Reporting Part of VNG Service
Question: A local neurology group’s VNG machine is broken and they want to refer the patients here so our audiologist can perform the VNG. They will see the patient afterwards to discuss the results. Can we take a direct referral for a VNG (which will be performed by one of our audiologists) from a physician outside of our practice?
Wisconsin Subscriber
Answer: Yes, you can take the outside referral and document the order as coming from the neurologist.
When billing, be sure to include modifier TC (Technical component) since your audiologist is only performing the test. The neurology group should submit the same CPT® code that the audiologist does and append modifier 26 (Professional component) for interpretation. VNG (videonystagmography) often is reported with a vestibular function test code from 92540-92548.
Otolaryngology Coding Alert
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