Pathology/Lab Coding Alert

Question: We currently are performing testing for Ehrlichia/Anaplasma, a panel which contains the following four specific analytes:

• Ehrlichia chaffeensis
• Ehrlichia muris
• Ehrlichia ewingii
• Anaplasma phagocytophilum

We’re presently coding this test as 87798 x 4. Do we need to change our coding now that the 2023 CPT^® codes includes a code for “Ehrlichia chaffeensis, amplified probe technique”?

Georgia Subscriber

Answer: Yes, for 2023 you should not continue to use 87799 x 4 for the panel you describe.

Instead, you should use the following existing and new 2023 CPT^® codes for the panel you describe, according to William Dettwyler, MT-AMT, president of Codus Medicus, a laboratory coding consulting firm in Salem, Oregon:

• 87484 (Infectious agent detection by nucleic acid (DNA or RNA); Ehrlichia chaffeensis, amplified probe technique)
• 87798 (Infectious agent detection by nucleic acid (DNA or RNA), not otherwise specified; amplified probe technique, each organism) for Ehrlichia muris
• 87798 for Ehrlichia ewingii
• 87468 (Infectious agent detection by nucleic acid (DNA or RNA); Anaplasma phagocytophilum, amplified probe technique)

Special notation. New code 87468 will be the parent code for infectious agent detection by nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) in 2023 because it occurs alphabetically before what had been the parent code, 87471 (Infectious agent detection by nucleic acid (DNA or RNA); Bartonella henselae and Bartonella quintana, amplified probe technique).