Pathology/Lab Coding Alert

6 tips show you the do's and don'ts of using 88387 and +88388. When your pathologist performs sterile macroscopic dissection to prep tissue for molecular diagnostics tests, you didn't have a way to capture the service -- until now. Take advantage of this new payment opportunity by learning when you can and can't use the 2010 codes, how to document the service, and what you need to know for correct billing. Tip 1: Know the 'Macro' Service CPT 2010 introduces two new codes to describe surgical pathology tissue prep for certain ancillary tests: 88387 --" Macroscopic examination, dissection, and preparation of tissue for nonmicroscopic analytical studies (e.g., nucleic acid-based molecular studies); each tissue preparation (e.g., a single lymph node) +88388 --" in conjunction with a touch imprint, intraoperative consultation, or frozen section, each tissue preparation (e.g., a single lymph node) (List separately in addition to code for primary procedure). "These codes [...]