An adolescent comes to the lab for drug testing. The lab tests the patient for three drug classes: alcohols, cocaine and metabolites and tetrahydrocannabinols. The laboratory uses the chromatographic method to test all three drug classes with one screening. The patient comes up positive for tetrahydrocannabinols, but negative for the remaining drug classes. A confirmation test is performed to confirm the positive test results. What is the correct code for this laboratory service?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The correct code for this laboratory service is 80100, for the testing of all three drug classes using one chromatographic test. Code 80102 also needs to be included to indicate that a confirmation test was performed on one of the drug classes, which tested positive. Code 80101 is only appropriate if the laboratory equipment indicated that only one drug class was tested at a time. If this is the case, code 80101 should be reported with three units.

An Adolescent Comes to the Lab for Drug Testing