This is an old question with varying answers. I have never billed CPT 74300-26 with CPT 47563, however, a new coder insists that it is OK to do this. I can’t really find anything officially in writing other than the opinions of people on various sites. Our radiologist at the hospital is usually not in attendance during the procedure, but to meet hospital requirements he dictates a report saying that the procedure was done, but he did not attend. Sometimes he recaps what the surgeon did, but other times he simply states that he was not in attendance but is dictating per hospital requirements .He simply says that the surgeon performed the procedure. The surgeon does not dictate a separate report for CPT 74300. He just states that he did the procedure in the Operative Report.

I had thought that CPT 74300-26 was established just for a radiologist if two people were involved (surgeon and radiologist), but I did not think that it was an additional code that the surgeon could add on with CPT 47563. It is especially confusing since the combination of codes are not listed as bundled. The other coder did state that several carriers pay both codes, but some also do not pay for it. I am hesitate to code it since I am concerned that I will eventually have a request for a large amount of refunds.

I would appreciate any additional resources that could be offered to answer the question.

Thanks,

Deb