Radiology Coding Alert

Question: How should we report an abdominal ultrasound and a color Doppler?

Answer: If you performed complete abdominal vessel studies, you should report 93975 (Duplex scan of arterial inflow and venous outflow of abdominal, pelvic, scrotal contents and/or retroperitoneal organs; complete study) for the Doppler and 76700 (Ultrasound, abdominal, Bscan and/or real time with image documentation; complete) for the ultrasound.

If you performed a limited abdominal study (for example, of the liver only), you should report 93976 (Duplex scan of arterial inflow and venous outflow of abdominal, pelvic, scrotal contents and/or retroperitoneal organs; limited study) and 76705 (Ultrasound, abdominal, B-scan and/or real time with image documentation; limited [e.g., single organ, quadrant, follow-up]) instead. The interpretation and report for the services you performed should clearly document the extent of each abdominal ultrasound procedure.