Reader Questions:
Include In-Office Collection Work in E/M
Published on Sun Jan 02, 2005
Question: When an otolaryngologist tests a patient for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in the office, may he also bill for acquiring the specimen? To obtain the specimen, the physician takes a swab from the nasal cavity.
New Hampshire Subscriber
Answer: CPT doesn't contain a code for taking a nasal-swab specimen. You should consider the work involved in swabbing the nasal cavity as part of the E/M service (99201-99215, Office or other outpatient service for the evaluation and management of a new or established patient ...).
Reminder: If you are performing the RSV test in the office, keep in mind that the RSV test is a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA)-waived test. So you must append modifier -QW (CLIA waived test) to the test code (87899, Unlisted microbiology procedure).
You may report 87899-QW for two manufacturer's RSV tests:
Binax NOW
Integrated Biotechnology Quick Lab.
