CATEGORISATION
& BILLING

Categorising and billing pathology tests in each individual case is subject to a series of factors which are outside ISTODIEREVNITIKI's control.

Among other things, these factors include:

• the size of surgical specimens removed by surgeons
• the number of biopsies taken by referring clinicians
• the type and number of supplementary tests required for diagnosis ordered by the anatomic pathologist making the diagnosis.

Consequently, the initial estimated cost of examining a specimen removed using the same surgical or biopsy procedure may differ depending on the number of specimens submitted, the location from which the specimens were taken and their size, as well as the supplementary tests required to properly assess the specimen.

To enable us to transparently quantify and price the technological and diagnostic work required, we implement a methodology based on categorisation and coding of specimens by levels in line with the US Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) standards.

This methodology was proposed in 2010 by the Hellenic Society of Pathology and approved in 2012 by Greece’s Central Health Council in the context of costing all medical procedures carried out in Greece (see Hellenic Nomenclature and Codification of Medical Procedures - http://www.moh.gov.gr/articles/health/domes-kai-draseis-gia-thn-ygeia/articles/ken-eswteriko/713-kwdikopoihseis [4.3.2 Medical Procedures Codes Group E3 Pathology Anatomy Genetics].

This methodology is considered to reflect with a satisfactory degree of accuracy the complexity of each case submitted to the Anatomic Pathology Laboratory for examination, in order for it to be categorised and then billed.