A patient presents at his primary care provider's office with pain in the left wrist. The physician orders a complete, three view x-ray of the wrist to be done in the outpatient department of the local hospital. The hospital will bill the technical component of the wrist x-ray. How will the radiologist bill for his services?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The radiologist will bill using the code for the radiologic examination performed (in this case, a complete, three-view wrist x-ray, which is coded as 73110) with the modifier -26 to indicate that only the professional component (interpretation of the x-ray) is being billed for, not the technical component (the actual taking of the x-ray).

A Patient Presents at His Primary Care Provider's Office with Pain