Targeted probe and educate (TPE) round results: Clinical laboratory services (CPT 87150)

Culture, typing; identification by nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) probe, amplified probe technique, per culture or isolate, each organism probed (CPT 87150)

Top denial / partial denial reasons and high-level results are listed below from each round of clinical laboratory services for TPE reviews that have been conducted thus far by Medical Review. If you have questions about your individual results, please contact the nurse reviewer assigned to your review for additional information. Additional rounds of review will be utilized when the targeted topic demonstrates a continued need for review with newly identified providers.

Top denial / partial denial reasons

The most common reasons for denial or partial denials are the following:

• Medical necessity – The documentation submitted does not support medical necessity as listed in coverage requirements.
• Insufficient documentation – Insufficient documentation was provided to support the services as billed to Medicare. Medical Review makes multiple attempts to correct these error types before completion of the review. Below are the following denial reasons for insufficient documentation that we were not able to resolve:
  • Documentation missing valid order for the service.
  • Documentation submitted was for incorrect date of service.
  • Documentation submitted did not support the number of units billed, as payment was included with other testing reported on the same date of service.
  • Non-response to documentation request.

Round results