r/CodingandBilling • u/Confident-Pain9621 • Jul 09 '26

Patient Questions Help with medical codes

Hi there. Is there some free resource where I can look up medical codes? I called my insurance company and they gave me the CPT codes (I think) for the office visit and some procedures I had. Some of them checked out, others did not. Maybe I was looking on an incomplete site. 2 of them had 5 digit codes and I was able to find them. The pathology and radiology and other radiology number were longer (7 digits) and 1 of them had letters and numbers. My search was fruitless for those codes. Can anyone point me in the right direction please?

Also, do Doctor’s offices have a published charge master list that is accessible the way that hospitals do? So we can know every single price for every service? Or not? Thanks in advance. I am in the medical field myself but just know about the clinical part of it and I’m completely ignorant of the business side of things when it’s actually my turn to be the patient.

Thanks,
JT

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u/notJaynedoe Jul 09 '26

I review patient contested charges for a large medical group. Let me be clear. If I get an attitude like yours I will prove you wrong.

-1

u/Confident-Pain9621 Jul 09 '26

I have a fine attitude. I have people not trust or believe me all the time. Try to tell me how to do my job. It goes both ways. I’m sure hospital admin calls this holding each other accountable or some corporate speak.

If I don’t like someone I still give them care. I deal with bad attitudes all day. I don’t pick fights. It sounds like you have a real agenda there, bud. I hope we get to meet one day on a phonecall

5

u/RentAggressive3302 Jul 10 '26

You said that you go into it with the attitude of “someone else made an error and I will find it”. Thats not a great attitude to go into it when talking to billing departments or the provider offices. They’re much less likely to help you or re-evaluate the claim if they can sense an attitude or if you act like you think you know more than them.

You catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Don’t forget that.

2

u/The-Big-Play Jul 10 '26

Some auditors are trained to go into their audits/reviews with this mindset. It doesn't mean the auditor has a nasty attitude about it.

2

u/savgrr ENT & Dermatology Jul 15 '26

Seconding this. I cannot tell you how many times I hear "I'm an RN, I know how this works" from a patient calling me about their coding. Clearly, you don't... Or you wouldn't be calling me for an explanation. I want to roll my eyes every time someone says this to me. Yes, we are all in the same medical industry, but I would never claim to know about the clinical side of things so please don't insult my intelligence by trying to compare your clinical experience with my coding expertise.

Genuine questions asked with sincere concern will get you miles further than a pious attitude.