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When billing a 76817 and the note indicates that the heartbeat was heard and or recorded, would the correct cpt code be 76825 initial and 76826 followup. If this is incorrect please help with the correct code if there is one.
When billing a 76817 and the note indicates that the heartbeat was heard and or recorded, would the correct cpt code be 76825 initial and 76826 followup. If this is incorrect please help with the correct code if there is one.
I am not sure why you are asking about billing both 76825 and 76826 in this case. If the provider did a transvaginal ultrasound and noted the fetal heartbeat then that is what you code. If he is performing a complete fetal echo you bill 76825 the fetal heartbeat would be documented during that exam and the transvaginal ultrasound would be considered to be not medically indicated. If he is doing a follow-up echo based on an initial one on a different date you can bill 76826, but again, you would not bill a transvaginal ultrasound as well as the echo will pick up the heartbeat as part of the work.
With doing the M-Mode it would still be coded with the 76817 transvaginal ultrasound (part of this code) . I'm confused with the M-Mode as we are recording the fetal heartbeat. CPT code 76817 doesn't say annything about performing the heartbeat recording.