Ask Dr. Z

Ask Dr. Z Knowledge Base houses over 7,500 coding questions and answers dating back to 2013.

Ask Dr. Z Disclaimer

Please note this question was answered in 2021. The coding advice may or may not be outdated.

Sentinel nodes imaged on scintigraphy

Date: Oct 25, 2021

Question:

I have a surgeon who is wanting to report code 78195 when he injects blue dye into the patient during a surgery to excise sentinel nodes. The patient does go to the radiology department and have the radiotracer injected, scintigraphy is performed, and patient is transferred to the OR. The radiologist is generating a report for this, and my surgeon is using a neoprobe in the OR as well. From everything I'm reading, only code 38900 would be reported for the blue dye and mapping procedure by the surgeon and not the 78195. Is this incorrect? If the surgeon injected the radiotracer in the radiology suite and the radiologist completed the scintigraphy, would the coding change?

Question ID : 16144
Sign up for a membership to view the answer to this question.

Need to ask Dr.Z?

Don't see the answer you're looking for in the knowledge base? No problem. You can ask Dr. Z directly!
Ask Dr. Z a question now!