chemo infusion coding

Scenario: patient comes in for chemo infusion. The mixture of saline and Carboplatin are administered. Can I code/bill for the saline?

saline

No, it is used to administer the Carboplatin. Chapter 11 of the CCI manual- if the sole purpose of fluid administration (eg; saline) is to administer the drug(s), substances, it is considered incidental hydration and should not be reported separately. You should not report HCPCS codes for the normal saline listed as diluents.

chemo infusion coding

Thanks Nancy, for the reference. So often, we base our coding on what we heard from a friend, saw on Codapedia, read in a newsletter. When the definitive citation is available (in this case, the NCCI edits) it really helps.