Pathology/Lab Coding Alert

Question: Our pathologist consulted on a breast resection and examined frozen section slides from three surgical margins that the surgeon submitted separately. The pathologist examined the margins using one frozen-section block from each of the margins, plus a second block from one of the margins for a total of four blocks. How should we code this? 

Georgia Subscriber

Answer: Because the surgeon separately identifies each of three margins by location, you should consider the block(s) from each margin as a separate specimen for frozen section.

That means you should report three units of 88331 (Pathology consultation during surgery; first tissue block, with frozen section[s], single specimen), one for each of the three separately identified surgical margins (specimens).

You should report the fourth block that represents block number two from a single margin (specimen) as 88332 (Pathology consultation during surgery; each additional tissue block with frozen section[s]).