Radiology Coding Alert

You have to kick your coding skills into high gear to avoid the unique pitfalls associated with patients receiving multiple imaging exams on one day. Case in point: You have to know when to report an exam "with contrast."

Question: Suppose a provider performs an abdominal CT and then immediately performs a pelvic CT on the same patient. She administers 100 cc contrast intravenously before the abdominal CT but does not administer contrast before the pelvic CT. Should you code a "with contrast" pelvic CT?

Answer: The 100 cc contrast administered prior to the abdominal CT (74160) counts toward a "with contrast" pelvic CT (72193). The provider doesn't have to inject contrast separately for each exam for you to report a "with contrast" CT. The patient still has contrast material used for image enhancement in her system, so the exam is with contrast.

Don't miss: If you bear the cost of contrast, you should bill the actual contrast amount supplied. You should not report 100 cc contrast supply for each CT because the provider injects 100 cc contrast just once.