You Be the Coder:
Needle Biopsy
Published on Wed Nov 01, 2000
Question: When performing a needle biopsy on one of the internal organs (i.e., liver, stomach, pancreas), would CPT 76942 be appropriate when an ultrasound is involved?
Kay T. Bell
Murphy, N.C.
Test your coding knowledge. Determine how you would code this situation before looking at the box below for the answer.
Answer: Yes, code 76942 (ultrasonic guidance for needle placement [e.g., for biopsy, needle aspiration, injection, or placement of localization device], radiological supervision and interpretation) is the appropriate code to assign for the radiological supervision and interpretation (RS&I) affiliated with ultrasonic guidance for needle biopsy. If you are billing for the global service (i.e., professional and technical components), you would code 76942 without a modifier. If you are billing for the RS&I professional component only, attach modifier -26 (professional component) to 76942. Either way, you would use this code in addition to the biopsy code corresponding to the anatomical site concerned (e.g., 47000, biopsy of liver, needle; percutaneous).
