Question

question 12 (2.5 points)
a cardiac patient must take digoxin to treat his atrial fibrillation (afib). this condition has been controlled for several years but the patient now presents to his physician with new complaints of irregular heartbeats. the physician orders a total digoxin study to determine the total level of digoxin in order to measure the drugs efficacy in treating his afib. what cpt® code is reported?

80299
80162
80163
82542

Explanation:

Identify the ordered laboratory test

The physician orders a "total digoxin study" to measure the level of digoxin in the patient's system. Digoxin is a therapeutic drug, so this falls under Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (TDM) assays in the CPT codebook.

Evaluate the CPT code options

• 80162: Digoxin; total
• 80163: Digoxin; free
• 80299: Quantitation of therapeutic drug, not elsewhere specified
• 82542: Column chromatography, qualitative or quantitative, each specimen, not elsewhere specified

Select the correct code

Since the physician specifically ordered a "total digoxin study," the correct, most specific CPT code is 80162.

Answer:

• 80299
• 80162 (Correct answer)
• 80163
• 82542