Otolaryngology Coding Alert

Question: Concerning the new bundled CPT 92570 ,do I report this even if the audiologist performed onlysome of the bundled tests?

Oklahoma Subscriber

Answer: If you wish to reflect the audiologist performed three out of four tests, you should report 92540-52 (Reduced services). If your audiologist performs only one of the tests included in the global service, you should not use the global code with modifier 52 (Reduced services). Instead, you should use the individual codes representing the test.

Example: Suppose your audiologist performs only the spontaneous nystagmus testing portion of 92570's (Acoustic immittance testing, includes tympanometry [impedance testing], acoustic reflex threshold testing, and acoustic reflex decay testing) descriptor. You would report 92541 (Spontaneous nystagmus test, including gaze and fixation nystagmus, with recording) alone.

Problem: On the other hand, suppose your audiologist performs the spontaneous nystagmus testing (92541), the positional nystagmus testing (94542), and the optokinetic nystagmus testing (92544) portions. He does not perform the oscillating tracking testing (92545), which would allow you to report the global code 92540 (Basic vestibular evaluation, includes spontaneous nystagmus test with eccentric gaze fixation nystagmus, with recording, positional nystagmus test, minimum of 4 positions, with recording, optokinetic nystagmus test, bidirectional foveal and peripheral stimulation, with recording, and oscillating tracking test, with recording).

For each of these codes, CPT instructs you not to report them with the other components. For instance, underneath 92541, you'll see "Do not report 92541 in conjunction with 92542, 92544, 92545," according to CPT. In other words, you can report only one component.