Our endocrinologist had a patient referred to him for treatment of a thyroid nodule; the patient brought in an ultrasound report from an outside source, and a fine needle biopsy was scheduled for another day. However, when the patient returned for the procedure, when examining the thyroid on ultrasound, our endocrinologist could not detect a nodule so the procedure was not carried out.

I would like confirmation/suggestions on how to bill this visit. There are sufficient elements in the encounter notes to bill a 99212; but since the ultrasound was not read by a radiologist and a report was not generated, my question is whether or not I can bill for a "limited" thyroid ultrasound by adding a -52 modifier to the thyroid ultrasound code 76536?

Thanks.