HAP Radiology Billing and Coding Blog

Medicare publishes its rules and requirements for the coding and billing of medical procedures to obtain reimbursement under its programs, but many commercial insurers are not as transparent about their own requirements. This leaves medical billing professionals in the dark when there are new procedure codes or changes to existing coding in the American Medical Association’s CPT^® code set or by federal regulation.  Such is the case with mammography coding for 2017.  Below we have summarized the key coding considerations for radiology practices billing mammography services this year. (Click here to read our complete article on the 2017 coding changes impacting diagnostic and intervential radiology.)

Medicare’s required changeover to ICD-10 diagnosis coding has shed more light than usual on a topic that requires constant diligence by radiology practices. Regardless of the payer being billed, good procedure coding and diagnosis coding are a must – and the source material for that coding is the documentation found in the radiologist’s report of the imaging examination.

Reimbursement rates for both Breast Ultrasound and Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (DBT) received a boost from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) this year.  Medicare adopted new CPT¹ coding that provides enhanced reimbursement for ultrasound services, and coverage was newly approved for DBT as an add-on to screening and diagnostic mammography examinations.  These changes were described in our article, The Impact of Coding Changes on Radiology Practices in 2015.  In order to fully realize the benefit of these new billing opportunities, proper documentation is required within radiology practices.