Pathology/Lab Coding Alert

Question: Our lab performs a procedure to assay non-drug analytes that involves column chromatography plus mass spectrometry. Should we report the service as 82542 and 83789? 

California Subscriber

Answer: No, you should not report both 82542 (Column chromatography/mass spectrometry [e.g., GC/MS, or HPLC/MS], non-drug analyte not elsewhere specified; quantitative, single stationary and mobile phase) and 83789 (Mass spectrometry and tandem mass spectrometry [MS, MS/MS], analyte not elsewhere specified; quantitative, each specimen) for the lab method you describe. 

You can see from the 82542 code descriptor that the procedure includes a combination approach using both column chromatography and mass spectrometry (MS). You should not additionally report a second code for the MS procedure.

Heads up: CPT^® 2016 changes the definitions for these codes as follows, but the code revisions won’t change the answer to your question:

• 82542 — Column chromatography, includes mass spectrometry, if performed (e.g., HPLC, LC, LC/MS, LC/MS-MS, GC, GC/MS-MS, GC/MS, HPLC/MS), non-drug analyte(s) not elsewhere specified, qualitative or quantitative, each specimen
• 83789 — Mass spectrometry and tandem mass spectrometry (e.g., MS, MS/MS, MALDI, MS-TOF, QTOF), non-drug analyte(s) not elsewhere specified, qualitative or quantitative, each specimen.