Jump to content

Featured Replies

Posted
comment_19989

How are you charging for CPT 86903 Blood typing: antigen screening for compatible blood units using reagent serum per screened unit? According to the instructions 86903 should only be billed for each unit screened NOT for each antigen tested.

  • 3 weeks later...
  • Replies 10
  • Views 8.9k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

comment_20735

:frown:We used to charge per antigen per unit. We found out at that, to be compliant with billing, we could have one charge for each unit, no matter how many antigens.

comment_20799

Ditto for us; you are only allowed to charge per UNIT, not per antigen tested.

comment_20844

Yes, the CMS reimbursement rules have changed - per UNIT, not per ANTIGEN. So if you screen 10 units for K, you can charge 10, and if you screen 10 units for C,E,K Fya you can still only charge 10.

We changed our billing code from the patient, to the unit.

  • 3 weeks later...
comment_21590

We only drop one charge per unit, but that charge is different depending on how many Antigens were screened for. If 1 then it's the Antigen 1charge, if 4 then it's the Antigen 4 charge on each unit

comment_21708

We have three different antigen groups, based on cost of the antisera. But we charge one per unit. So, the first group has CcEKMNA1Cw, so if you four units with any of those, charge 4. The next tier has the duffys, etc. But one charge per unit. We only charge one charge per unit ordered, so if the patient needs 4 units, and we typed 10 to find the four, we still can only charge 4.

comment_21738

Do you manually bill the patient or your computer system is set up to do that??

If you screen 10 units, i thought you should be able to charge for 10 units but only once regardless of antigens.???

comment_21739

We put the charges in manually. I am not sure how you could set that up automatically. The techs are the ones that know who and how many and of what tier really.

Not that CMS reimbursements cannot change, I will ask our consultant and get back to you on that one!

comment_21742

Just got it straight from our billing/medicare consultant that yes, we should be screening for each unit tested. That is even if the amount tested exceeds the number of units that are crossmatched.

Edited by LaraT23
misspelled

comment_21897

We are using cpt code 86905 and billing per antigen/ per unit typed. We investigated this last year and found a reference in AABB's "Billing and Reimbursement / Frequently asked questions". The original question was regarding billing for matching units for sickle cell patients. You may still be able to pull this up on AABB's website.

Stephanie Townsend, MT (ASCP)SBB

Create an account or sign in to comment

Recently Browsing 0

  • No registered users viewing this page.

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.

Configure browser push notifications

Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.