Clarification:
Codes 88329 and 88331 are Bundled
Published on Fri Jun 01, 2001
In the article To Boost Bottom Line, Avoid Bundling Hysterectomy Specimens that Require Individual Diagnoses in the April 2001 issue of Pathology/Lab Coding Alert a reference to 88329 and 88331 on page 28 created some confusion. The parenthetic listing of the codes following the procedure name was intended to identify the code for each procedure, not to imply that the two codes should be reported together. Codes 88329 (pathology consultation during surgery) and 88331 (pathology consultation during surgery; first tissue block, with frozen section[s], single specimen) should not be reported together for a single specimen, as they are considered bundled. Explanations of this fact can be found in previous issues of Pathology/Lab Coding Alert (July and September 2000). We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.
