Aug. 13, 2020

This is a friendly reminder that BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina and BlueChoice^® HealthPlan does cover testing to diagnose COVID-19 at 100 percent of the allowed amount for members when medically necessary and prescribed by health providers. However, it is not necessary to order and perform both tests on the same day for the same member.  BlueCross and BlueChoice^® will only cover one test per day for the same member:

• U0002 - 2019-nCoV Coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2/2019-nCoV (COVID-19), any technique, multiple types or subtypes (includes all targets), non-CDC.
  Note: Use this code if your lab does not use CDC test kits and your test is not described by code 87635 listed below.
• U0003 - Infectious agent detection by nucleic acid (DNA or RNA); severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (Coronavirus disease [COVID-19]), amplified probe technique, making use of high throughput technologies as described by CMS-2020-01-R. 

Please only perform one of these tests for your patients per day.  

Only one PCR/DAIG test of any kind is clinically appropriate and or medically necessary.

For questions regarding the information presented in this bulletin, please contact Provider Education using the Provider Education Contact Form.