Radiology Question for the Week of March 26, 2018

Question:

A patient came in for a whole body thyroid cancer metastases imaging and a SPECT/CT of the neck and chest also was performed. What CPT® code are we to assign here since there is no CPT code for the SPECT/CT?

Answer:

When performing a whole-body thyroid metastasis scan with SPECT/CT, you would report the three codes below-–78018 for the whole body scan, 78803 for the SPECT, and 78099 for the computed tomography (CT) fusion for localization.

78018 Thyroid carcinoma metastases imaging; whole body
78803 Radiopharmaceutical localization of tumor or distribution of radiopharmaceutical agent(s); tomographic (SPECT)
78099 Unlisted endocrine procedure, diagnostic nuclear medicine

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