Pathology/Lab Coding Alert

Question: When the microbiology lab performs additional tests to make a definitive identification of an organism, should we report CPT 87076 or 87077 once for each additional method?

South Carolina Subscriber Answer: First, you should use only one or the other of these codes for identifying a given isolate because 87076 represents anaerobic cultures, but  87077 is for aerobic cultures (87076, Culture, bacterial; anaerobic isolate, additional methods required for definitive identification, each isolate; or 87077, ... aerobic isolate, additional methods required for definitive identification, each isolate).
 
You should not report either 87076 or 87077 per additional identification method, which includes standard techniques of special media and biochemical testing. That's because the unit of service for these tests is the isolate. Regardless of the number of methods used, such as biochemical panels and slide cultures, you should report 87076 or 87077 once for each isolate that the lab identifies definitively to the genus or species level.  - Reader Questions were prepared with the assistance of R.M. Stainton Jr., MD, president of Doctors' Anatomic Pathology Services in Jonesboro, Ark.