Wiki Billing Pathology charges done in a physicians office lab

[jessica_hall1]

We just recently added a pathology lab to our GI office and are going to start billing Medicare pathology charges. What is the place of service code we should use if the procedures are performed at an Ambulatory Surgical Center but the pathology specimens are processed at our office lab?

Also do we need any modifiers on the codes? There is normally more than one unit per code.

 

[danachock]

POS Ambulatory Surgical Center

Hi, it should be 24.
I have seen recently seen a lot of flack on people posting stuff without giving any reference to "validate the answer". I apologize, sometimes I don't have "written proof.
I know that it's POS 24 because our facility utilizes modifier 24 for the surgery center we process pathology specimens received. The reason I can say that is because there was hiccup and for very short period of time on those and they were processed with POS 22.
Thanks,
Dana Chock, CPC, CCA, CANPC, CHONC, CPMA, CPB

 

[jessica_hall1]

Thank you so much - Really appreciate your input!

 

[em2177]

POS 24 ? Ambulatory Surgical Centers: Physicians/practitioners who perform services in a Medicare-participating ASC will use POS code 24 (ASC). Physicians are not to use POS code 11 (office) for ASC based services unless the physician has an office at the same physical location of the ASC which meets all other requirements for operating as a physician office at the same physical location as the ASC ? including meeting the ?distinct entity? criteria defined in the ASC State Operations Manual that precludes the ASC and an adjacent physician office from being open at the same time ? and the physician service was actually performed in the office suite portion of the facility. Details of ASC information can be found in Appendix L of the ASC CMS Manual on the CMS website.