Otolaryngology Coding Alert

Question: Which codes are acceptable for oto-techs to perform based on the Medicare rules?

Louisiana Subscriber

Answer: Under physician or qualified nonphysician practitioner (NPP) supervision, a technician may be able to perform the technical component of these procedures, provided the physician or NPP is responsible for all clinical judgment and for the appropriate provision of the service:

- 92567 -- Tympanometry (impedance testing)

- 92541-92546 -- Vestibular function tests, with recording

- 92585 -- Auditory evoked potentials for evoked response audiometry and/or testing of the central nervous system; comprehensive

- 92587-92588 -- Evoked otoacoustic emissions - .

You have to do a little interpreting of Medicare's Transmittal 84, which addressed audiology diagnostics. The transmittal specifies that technicians can perform certain audiological diagnostic tests that do not require the skills of an audiologist or physician while the patient is being tested to interpret the test results and interpreting the future direction of the testing. The one test listed in the transmittal as meeting this requirement is tympanometry.

In addition, technicians can provide the technical portion of all vestibular function tests. The transmittal gives 92541 as an example of a code in that family. The full vestibular family is 92541-92546.