Hello Flowers, This message is specifically addressed to those, who perform immunophenotyping for lymphoma/leukemia patients. I have recently found that (at least in the state of Georgia) medicare has stopped reimbursing flow cytometry test if it was ordered for following ICD-9 codes: 782.2 Localized superficial swelling mass or lump 784.2 Swelling mass or lump in head and neck 786.6 Swelling mass or lump in chest 789.3 Abdominal or pelvic swelling, mass or lump (enlargements of lymphoid organs and masses, that may represent lymph nodes and tissues involved in lymphoma) 423.9 Unspecified disease of pericardium 511.9 Unspecified pleural effusion (hematolymphoid malignancies that may seed body cavities) 285.9 Anemia, unspecified 287.5 Thrombocytopenia unspecified 288.0 Agranulocytosis 288.3 Eosinophilia 288.8 Other specified disease of white blood cells 289.9 Unspecified diseases of blood and blood-forming organs (test to rule out lymphoma / leukemia for the patients presented with cytopenias and/or cytoses) Of course, nobody has informed lab services or ordering physicians about these changes: I just happened to find it. I still cannot find out whether it applies to all 50 states or only to the state of GA. In any case, it seems that somebody is trying very hard to use high complexity lab testing for monitoring already existed diseases and exclude expensive diagnostics as much as possible. If other state medicare programs have the same trouble, let's combine the efforts and do something about it. If Georgia state medicare is unique at that point, please, help me with all possible suggestions and comments. Regards, Irina Irina Grigorieva, PhD Director, Flow Cytometry Laboratory Northside Hospital, Atlanta, GA (404)- 851-6541 e-mail: irina.grigorieva@northside.com -- End --Received on Mon Mar 13 16:58:00 2006
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