Pathology/Lab Coding Alert

Question: A physician orders blood electrolytes potassium, sodium, calcium, chloride, magnesium, and phosphate for a patient taking diuretic medication. Should we code one of the panels that includes many of these elements?

Iowa Subscriber

Answer: No, you should not report one of the organ and disease-oriented panel codes 80047-80076. None of the CPT® listed panels contains all and exclusively the blood tests requested by the physician.

Regarding the panels, CPT® states, "These panels were developed for coding purposes only and should not be interpreted as clinical parameters." If the ordering physician requests a group of tests not identified by a panel code, based on the patient's specific clinical condition, you should code each ordered test.

Report separate tests: You'll need to list the blood tests separately using the following codes:

• 84132 -- Potassium; serum, plasma or whole blood
• 84295 -- Sodium; serum, plasma or whole blood
• 82310 -- Calcium; total
• 82435 -- Chloride; blood
• 83735 -- Magnesium
• 84100 -- Phosphorus inorganic (phosphate).