What is Allergy Coding?

Doctors have patients coming in with allergy-related problems throughout the year. They not only have to deal with them on urgent bases but also have to keep an organized record of the patient’s condition against the right allergy coding to ensure compliance and compensation for the medical care delivered.

Maintaining an allergy practice can be time-consuming and challenging. Many methods are currently being scrutinized and pressured by third-party payers to offer the most cost-effective healthcare services possible. Allergy testing is typically the first step in a physician’s immunotherapy procedure for addressing a patient’s allergies to discover potential allergens impacting the patient. Skin testing is the most popular method for allergy testing, and it cannot be billed more than twice for each separate antigen.

Allergy Codes for Direct Supervision Testing

CPT 95004 – Percutaneous tests for non-biological/non-venom allergenic extracts with an immediate-type reaction

CPT 95024 – Intracutaneous (intradermal) tests for non-biological/non-venom allergenic extracts for airborne with an immediate-type reaction OR 1 stick antigen

CPT 95027 – Sequential and incremental testing for airborne allergens with an immediate-type reaction OR multiple sticks /antigen

CPT 95028 – Intracutaneous tests with allergenic extracts and a delayed-type reaction including reading, specify no of the test (24-72 hours after administration)

CPT 95044 – Patch OR application tests

CPT 95056 – Photo tests

CPT 95052 – Photo patch tests

Only allergy code 95056 should be reported when CPT 95056 is used in conjunction with CPT 95044. If CPT 95052 is used in combination with CPTs 95056 and 95044, only CPT 95052 must be reported. When venoms are tested in percutaneous, intracutaneous, sequential, and incremental ways, code 95017 is used. When any combination of these tests is conducted with medicines or biological allergenic extracts, CPT 95018 is reported.

See Also: Allergy code 95056