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With over 120 infectious agent antigen detection codes to choose from you need some guiding principles to help you select the right one. Listed from 87260 to 87904 of the microbiology section these codes describe lab tests that indicate patient infection with specific organism(s). To find the right code every time your lab performs one of these tests our experts advise that you follow these seven steps: 1. Don't Confuse Antigen With Antibody Before you choose one of these codes be sure the lab test was for an antigen and not an antibody. "Because many of the same organism names appear under infectious agent antigen tests in the microbiology section and under infectious agent antibody tests in the immunology section [86602-86804] coders can get confused " says Laurie Castillo MA CPC CPC-H CCS-P president of Professional Coding and Compliance Consulting in Manassas Va. Antigen tests identify a portion of the infecting agent such as a specific protein molecule or gene sequence while antibody tests identify a protein the body produces in response to the antigen. 2. Use for Primary Source Not Culture To use these codes you should also ensure that the lab performed the antigen test on a primary source such as a blood or urine sample not on a culture. "Although the antigen detection techniques may be similar if the lab performs the test on a culture rather than a direct smear you should report a code from the 87140 family (Culture typing; ...) " Castillo says. These codes include some of the same detection methods such as immunofluorescent technique and nucleic acid probe. 3. Select Lab Method First Once you know that you're coding antigen detection from a primary source you should first identify the lab method to help you select the proper code. Infectious agent antigen detection codes fall under four basic techniques each of which forms a family of codes. Each family shares a common code portion preceding the semicolon that describes the method as shown in the codes below:
"Notice that the nucleic acid technique typically lists three codes for each organism - direct probe technique amplified probe technique and quantification " Castillo says….. For more read:-
http://www.supercoder.com/articles/articles-alerts/pac/are-you-confused-by-infectious-agent-antigen-coding/
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pathology codes, lab codes, agent antigen coding, infectious agent antigen coding, cpt codes, icd-9 codes, hcpcs codes, medical coding, medical billin,
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