I feel like I was just struck by a blinding flash of the obvious with a little dash of "we've always done it that way."

 

When we do an elution, we perform an antibody screen with the eluate and the last wash, and an antibody ID panel for positives (or selected cells in rare cases when a lower incidence antibody is considered).

 

86860 is to cover the process that makes the elution; are we completely failing to charge for the additional antibody screen and antibody ID?

I think so. In our elution test battery (Meditech) we have a bill only test for the 86860, a "Antibody Eluted from Pt's Cells" antibody-ID type test where the results get reported and the Ab ID CPT code tacked on, and we should add a bill only code for the screen on the last wash as well. Thank you very much.