Pathology/Lab Coding Alert

Question: A physician submitted a urine specimen for suspected overdose of a combination of naproxen and ibuprofen. I don’t see those drugs listed – how should I code this?

Texas Subscriber

Answer: The appropriate code would be 80329 (Analgesics, non-opioid; 1 or 2).

Naproxen and ibuprofen are both analgesics. This is a definitive drug test to confirm the presence and, in this case, the level of the two drugs present in the specimen. CPT® also provides codes for 3-5 analgesics (80330) or 6 or more analgesics (80331), but you’ve described a test for just two analgesics, so 80329 is the best choice.

Difference: This is not a presumptive drug test ordered to screen for the presence of drugs, so you shouldn’t use a code from the range 80305-80307 (Drug test(s), presumptive, any number of drug classes, any number of devices or procedures …). Also, naproxen and ibuprofen are not listed analytes for therapeutic drug assays or chemistry tests.