February 13, 2020 — MolecuLight Inc., a leader in handheld fluorescence imaging for real-time detection of bacteria in wounds, announced that the American Medical Association (AMA) has issued two new CPT category lll codes to enable a reimbursement pathway for point-of-care real-time fluorescence wound imaging for bacterial presence, location and load using the MolecuLight i:X procedure. The two new category lll codes for the MolecuLight i:X procedure are:
(1) 0598T Noncontact real-time fluorescence wound imaging, for bacterial presence, location, and load, per session; first anatomic site (e.g. lower extremity), and
(2) 0599T each additional anatomic site (e.g. upper extremity) (List separately in addition to code for primary procedure) (Use 0599T in conjunction with 0598T)
Point-of-care fluorescence imaging of wounds is achieved using MolecuLight’s handheld fluorescence imaging device, the i:X. These Category III codes indicate no other CPT codes describe this novel procedure. The codes become active on July 1, 2020.
“The AMA’s issuance of these two new CPT codes for the MolecuLight procedure is an exciting milestone for the company and for the U.S. wound care industry overall,” said
Anil Amlani, MolecuLight’s CEO. “The AMA’s diligent scrutiny of our body of clinical evidence, a foundation for granting the CPT codes, recognizes the clinical utility of a diagnostic, point-of-care device and associated procedure to detect the presence, location and load of clinically-significant bacteria. The MolecuLight
i:X provides this solution and can be incorporated into all clinical care settings and wound care workflows. Through our growing global user base, we see the invaluable utility the MolecuLight procedure provides to wound care clinicians in informing and improving their wound care assessments, providing actionable information to optimize their treatments and ultimately, in improving their patient outcomes.”
“As a key participant in a number of clinical studies to validate the MolecuLight procedure, including a 350-patient study demonstrating improved wound assessment and a recent study demonstrating accelerated wound healing, I have witnessed the wide-spread utility of the MolecuLight
i:X procedure,” said
Windy Cole, M.D., medical director of the
UH Ahuja Wound Care Center in Cleveland, Ohio. “Wound care now has a diagnostic imaging solution that provides clinicians with the real-time detection of clinically significant bacteria. This is a fundamental break-through in wound care diagnostic imaging, and we now have a reimbursement pathway to support what I believe will become the standard of care for assessment of all wounds.”
*NOTE: CPT is a registered trademark of the American Medical Association.