CPT® 2012 Update: New and Revised Diagnostic Thoracoscopy Codes For Appropriate Reporting

Changes necessitate more specificity.

CPT® 2012 brought a load of changes to the way you report thoracoscopy. Besides including the term "VATS" (video-assisted thoracic surgery) to the thoracoscopy section descriptor, CPT has also introduced three new CPT codes 2012 to denote diagnostic thoracoscopy while phasing out the older codes.

For More about CPT® 2012 Update :- http://www.supercoder.com/cpt-codes/

Check out our advice that follows on accurately reporting diagnostic thoracoscopy this year.

Attention! Lung Biopsy Will Now be More Specific

Your options for coding thoracoscopies with a diagnostic biopsy expand in 2012. Now, as an alternative of 32602 (Thoracoscopy, diagnostic [separate procedure]; lungs and pleural space, with biopsy), you will need to report thoracoscopy with biopsy using the newly created CPT codes 2012:

• 32607 – (Thoracoscopy; with diagnostic biopsy[ies] of lung infiltrate[s] {e.g., wedge, incisional), unilateral)
• 32608 – (Thoracoscopy; with diagnostic biopsy[ies] of lung nodule[s] or mass[es] [e.g., wedge, incisional], unilateral)
• 32609 – (Thoracoscopy; with biopsy[ies] of pleura)

Benefits: This CPT® 2012 change has distinguished the three biopsy procedures with three separate CPT codes 2012. Consequently, now you can differentiate thoracoscopy with biopsy that includes an area of the lung with lung infiltrates, nodules or masses and the pleura with distinct codes.

In place of using a single code to signify multiple kinds of biopsy in a generalized area (lungs and pleural space) as earlier done with CPT® 32602, CPT® 2012 recognizes the varying efforts related with location along with the kind of tissue you are sampling.

The changes are also helpful in getting specific reimbursement for the procedures as the relative value units (RVUs) are dissimilar for the three CPT codes 2012 as follows: 32607 (~$316, 9.29 total RVUs); 32608 (~$388, 11.41 total RVUs); and 32609 (~$268, 7.89 total RVUs).

Coding Tips: Check the documentation to see if the biopsy involves an area of the lung with lung infiltrates, nodules, masses or the pleura to help arrive at the right thoracoscopy code. Also note that CPT® guidelines state that you can report CPT codes 32607 or 32608 only once for one lung.

Note This Diagnostic Thoracoscopy Excluding Biopsy Revision

CPT® 2012 changes the descriptor to 32601 (Thoracoscopy, diagnostic [separate procedure]; lungs, pericardial sac, mediastinal or pleural space, without biopsy) to cover all aspects of diagnostic thoracoscopy (without biopsy). The earlier descriptor to 32601 did not cover diagnostic thoracoscopy (without biopsy) with respect to the pericardial sac and the mediastinal space.

With this particular change, CPT® now has eliminated codes that used to cover diagnostic thoracoscopy (without biopsy) with respect to the pericardial sac as well as the mediastinal space. So, in place of CPT codes 32603 (Thoracoscopy, diagnostic [separate procedure]; pericardial sac, without biopsy) and 32605 (Thoracoscopy, diagnostic [separate procedure]; mediastinal space, without biopsy), you will just have to report 32601.