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Pediatric Coding Alert

Reader Questions:

Does 99000 Require Outside Lab, Urine Culture?

Published on Mon Oct 12, 2009

Question: I was under the impression the handling fee was only for labs that our office sends out, not for labs that we perform in-house. A patient comes in and we do the urine dip in-house and send the specimen to a lab for a culture. Can we charge a handling fee for the culture? Suppose a patient has an in-house strep and we send the specimen out for culture. Does 99000 apply to urine and blood specimens only, or can I use the code for throat cultures as well? Kentucky Subscriber Answer: You are correct in your understanding of 99000 (Handling and/or conveyance of specimen for transfer from the physician's office to a laboratory): Reserve the code for packaging, handling, and conveyance of a specimen that your office sends to an outside lab. You can use 99000 to "reflect the work involved in the preparation of a specimen prior [...]
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