Test

And to review a few key definitions for the second element which is data complexity or the data review, we want to give you the definition for test as defined by the AMA. Tests are imaging, laboratory, psychometric, or psychological data. A clinical laboratory panel, for example, basic metabolic panel is a single test. The differentiation between single or multiple unique tests is defined in accordance with the CPT code set. And Dr. Cockrell, can you give us a few examples of some tests that you might order in office or outside to an external provider?

Absolutely. So, certainly in an optometric practice the likelihood of ordering tests for micronutrients like 25-hydroxy vitamin D, or cobalt element might be high. As well as tests like sight sedimentation rate, or c-reactive protein, MRI or CT scans, all of those things are probably going to be done outside of your office, maybe even, maybe cultures of keratitis or blethoritis, anything you order a culture on that's not done in your own laboratory, that you’re ordering at the hospital or an outside lab are going to qualify as those test. There’s a debate about the separation of the order and the test itself. Are they two separate acts? Some certified professional coders and auditors are interpreting that the order and the test are separate events. So, as we move through this data complexity, you may be able to use the ordering of the test, each unique test, as part of your scoring. But it may be safer to use that unique test only if it's outside your own office, because there are other coders that are interpreting the intent of the CPT manual to mean the tests have to be ordered outside your office. And with respect to the review of notes, it is review of external notes, not review of your own notes that participate in the decision about data complexity. So, thank you Maritza. Thank you, I appreciate that.