Bundled Services for Drug Testing

The 2015 CPT Professional Edition codebook contains parenthetical instructions below CPT code 82544, which states as follows, “For column chromatography/mass spectrometry of drugs or substances, see Drug Assay 80300, 80301, 80302, 80303, 80304, 80320 – 80377, or specific analyte code(s) in the Chemistry section.” Since column chromatography/mass spectrometry of drugs or substances should be reported using CPT procedure codes, 80300, 80301, 80302, 80303, 80304, and 80320-80377 or with the specific analyte code from the chemistry section, Empire considers CPT codes 82541, 82542, 82543 and/or 82544 to be mutually exclusive to CPT codes 80300 – 80304 and 80320 – 80377 and not eligible for separate reimbursement for dates of service on or after September 1, 2015. Modifiers will not override this edit. This information is included in Empire’s Modifiers 59 and XE, XP, XS, & XU reimbursement policy.