Pediatric Coding Alert

Question: Our pediatrician sometimes administers an oral dose of an antibiotic or prednisone. Is there a CPT code to charge if we do give oral medication? We buy the medication to have in office for emergency purposes. For instance, a patient comes in with hives and after the doctor’s evaluation, orders a dose of the Orapred to be given by mouth. How can we report this?

Arizona subscriber

Answer: There is no CPT code for administering an oral medication, but there could, however, be a HCPCS code for the product which would be billable if it is a product purchased by the practice (not supplied by a pharmaceutical sales representative free to the practice). For example, you might consider reporting HCPCS code G8711 (Prescribed or dispensed antibiotic) to represent the antibiotic medication you administer orally.