Health Information Management

Tip: Be mindful of MUE values when reporting needle electromyography

APCs Insider, May 16, 2014

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The January 2014 issue of AMA's CPT® Assistant created confusion over reporting an add-on code for needle electromyography by rescinding previous advice. In the 2014 CPT Manual, the description for add-on code 95887 is:
  • Needle electromyography, non-extremity (cranial nerve supplied or axial muscle[s] done with nerve conduction, amplitude, and latency/velocity [list separately in addition to code for primary procedure])
In the July 2012 CPT Assistant, AMA stated that 95887 is based on the muscle being studied by the primary procedure, so it should only be reported once per session. However, in the January 2014 issue, AMA changed its stance, saying 95887 could be used more than once per session if the provider tests more than one site.
 
AMA offers this example: if a medically necessary electromyography is performed on the abdomen and the face in one encounter, two units of code 95887 could be reported. Yet the January and April 2014 NCCI updates still contain a medically unlikely edit (MUE) value of 1.
 
This tip is adapted from “CMS and AMA offer conflicting instructions in 2014 releases” in the May issue of Briefings on APCs.



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