CPT Code 87086 | Description, Procedure & Billing Guidelines (2022)
Report CPT code 87086 when a lab analyst cultures a urine specimen and, if present, reports the quantitative colony count.
1. What Is CPT Code 87086?
CPT 87086 can be used when a microbiologist (or a lab analyst cultures a urine specimen. This is usually a catheterized collection or a clean catch. The lab analyst reports the quantitative colony count result if growth is present.
2. Description
CPT code 87086 is defined by the CPT book as: “Culture, bacterial; quantitative colony count, urine.”
3. Procedure
The 87086 CPT code procedure starts with a microbiologist or lab analyst culturing a urine specimen with calibrated microbiology loop. This inoculates the media with about one–thousandth of a milliliter urine sample.
Then, after 18 hours of incubation, the lab analyst does a colony count by quantifying the number of bacteria present.
The growth (if present) is then identified, and antibiotic sensitivity can be performed.
4. How To Use CPT Code 87086
You might use additional CPT codes to report definitive or presumptive identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing.
TIP: You can find all the CPT codes for urine culture here.
You can also report CPT code 87086 if there is no growth after incubation.
Clinicians often order the 87086 CPT code for patients with urinary tract infection symptoms.
Consider using CPT 87088 for urine culture presumptive identification of each isolate.
Report CPT code 87077 for urine culture definitive bacterial identification, aerobic isolate, additional methods required for definitive identification, each isolate.
CPT 87184 can be used for susceptibility studies by disk method on urine culture isolates (12 or fewer agents).
CPT code 87186 can be billed for susceptibility studies by MIC technique on urine culture isolates.
5. Resources
https://www.aetna.com/cpb/medical/data/600_699/0695.html
https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coverage/CoverageGenInfo/downloads/manual200701.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6312639/
