LCD/NCD Portal

NCD160.21 TELEPHONE TRANSMISSION OF EEGS

 

 

Effective Date of this Version

 

• This is a longstanding national coverage determination. The effective date of this version has not been posted.

 

 

Benefit Category

 

• Incident to a physician's professional Service.

• Physicians' Services.

• Note: This may not be an exhaustive list of all applicable Medicare benefit categories for this item or service.

 

 

Item/Service Description

 

• Telephone transmission of EEGs has been most helpful in the following clinical situations:

o Altered consciousness, such as stuporous, semicomatose, or comatose states.

o Atypical seizure variants in patients experiencing bizarre, distressing symptoms as seen with "spike and wave stupor" or other forms of seizure disorders.

o Diagnosis of a suspected intracranial tumor.

o Head injury, where a subdural hematoma may be identified.

o Headaches during the acute phase where, for instance, in migraine syndrome, abnormal responses may be seen.

• Telephonically transmitted EEGs should NOT be used for determining electrical inactivity (i.e., brain death), because of unavoidable signal interference.

 

 

Indications and Limitations of Coverage

 

• Telephone transmission of EEGs is covered as a physician's service or as incident to a physician's service when reasonable and necessary for the individual patient, under appropriate circumstances.

• The service is safe, and may save time and cost in sending EEGs from remote areas without special competence in neurology, neurosurgery, and electroencephalography, by avoiding the need to transport patients to large medical centers for standard EEG testing.

 

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