Vol 4 Issue 3 March 2000

Chemistry Panel Changes

Only two years ago, at HCFA’s urging, the American Medical Association’s CPT editorial board abolished the automated chemistry profile codes 80002-80019 and replaced them with four smaller disease/organ panels containing tests on Medicare’s national roster of automated procedures. HCFA has steadily tightened requirements for panels, in particular stipulating that for a panel to be reimbursed, all of its component tests must be medically justified.

Not surprisingly, the CPT 2000 manual once again contained significant changes to the organ/disease panels that laboratories must implement on April 1. These changes directly affect the way laboratories bill Medicare and other federal and state health care programs for these panels and may affect the amount of Medicare reimbursement received for each panel.

The following table describes the new panel components:

Chemistry Tests	Comprehensive Metabolic	Renal Function	Basic Metabolic	Electrolyte Panel	Hepatic Function
Sodium	X	X*	X	X
Potassium	X	X*	X	X
Chloride	X	X*	X	X
CO2	X	X*	X	X
BUN	X	X*	X
Creatinine	X	X*	X
Glucose	X	X*	X
Calcium	X	X*	X*
Phosphate		X*
Albumin	X	X*			X
Total Protein	X				X*
ALP	X				X
AST	X				X
ALT	X*				X
D. Bilirubin					X
T. Bilirubin	X				X

# Tests	14	10	8	4	7
2000 CPT	80053	80069	80048	80051	80076
1999 CPT	80054	80049,82310,82040, 84100	80049	80051	80058

* New tests to be added April 2000