Question: If the lab performs a hepatitis C qualitative PCR and an HCV RNA quantification from the same blood draw, can we report both services? Answer: You would not normally report together two codes for nucleic-acid detection of the same infectious agent. Labs generally perform only one test on any given day to either identify or quantify infection with a specific organism. For example, the lab may perform a qualitative PCR for HCV RNA (amplified probe technique) to detect hepatitis C infection, and may, at a later time, perform HCV RNA quantification to monitor treatment effects. You would report the first test as 87521 (Infectious agent detection by nucleic acid [DNA or RNA]; hepatitis C, amplified probe technique) and the second as 87522 (... hepatitis C, quantification), but not on the same day.
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In fact, National Correct Coding Initiative (NCCI) edits list 87521 and 87522 as mutually exclusive codes. But hepatitis C isn't the only organism test that's bundled - NCCI lists as mutually exclusive the direct probe, amplified probe and quantification codes for each organism listed in the code range 87470-87652.
Although NCCI lists the bundled codes with a modifier indicator of "1," meaning that you can override the edit pair with a modifier, you should not do so when the lab runs the two tests on the same specimen.