Compliance Question of the Week – Question of the Week

If a nuclear medicine planar scan is performed of the knees for a possible infection, would this be coded as 78300 or 78800? Does it matter which radiopharmaceutical was used? Nuclear medicine technologists are saying it should be coded as an infection scan using 78800. Their point is that an infection radiopharmaceutical is being used, so it should be coded as 78800. However, when I read the heading of the section for 78800, it states “(for specific organ, see appropriate heading),” which would be the musculoskeletal system. Since a limited planar scan is present in that section, I believe 78300 should be used.

On the hospital side, during an MAA mapping study, the doctors are using a device called a TriNav catheter to temporarily occlude the vessel. To be clear, they are not performing an embolization at this point. Historically, we have billed for catheterization and imaging, but with the release of the C9797 code, we are now being instructed to bill C9797 during the MAA mapping, even when no true embolization is performed. The patient returns a few weeks later for the Y90 treatment, which also involves the use of the TriNav catheter. At that time, I billed the procedure with C9797. What is the correct way to bill for the MAA mapping session on the hospital side?