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Recently, we met with a path co that told us that we could bill 88305 twice for one specimen. Different cuts of the specimen offers a broader view. I have some hesitation about this, can someone please advise.
According to the cpt guidelines for Surgical Pathology a specimen is defined as tissue or tissues that is (are) submitted for individual and seperate attention, requiring individual exam and pathologic diagnosis. Two or more such specimens from the same patient (eg, separately identified endoscopic biopsies, skin lesions) are each appropriately assigned an individual code reflective of its proper level of service. Service codes 88304-88309 describe all other specimens requiring gross and microscopic exam and represnet different levels of physician work. So in a nutshell if a patient had two skin lesions removed one from the ear and one from the nose then yes you could code 88305 first line and the 2nd line would be 88305-59, hope this helps.