Summary & Overview
CPT 76942: Ultrasonography Guidance for Needle Placement
CPT code 76942 designates ultrasonography guidance for needle placement, a procedural imaging service used during percutaneous biopsies and other needle-based interventions. Nationally, this code matters because it supports accurate, image-guided targeting that reduces procedural complications and improves diagnostic yield across multiple specialties including radiology, surgery, and oncology. Payment and utilization policy for guidance procedures like 76942 affect clinical workflow, facility billing, and procedural planning at scale.
Key payers covered in this analysis include Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna Health, UnitedHealthcare, and Medicare. Readers will find an overview of coverage and typical reimbursement considerations for imaging guidance services, comparisons of payer policy approaches, and clinical context describing when ultrasonography guidance is employed. The publication summarizes benchmarks for utilization and coding practice, highlights common billing modifiers and scenarios affecting claims adjudication, and explains how 76942 integrates into procedure workflows for needle biopsies and other percutaneous interventions.
This resource is intended to clarify the clinical role of CPT code 76942, outline payer coverage scope, and provide practical coding context for administrative and clinical teams nationwide.
Billing Code Overview
CPT code 76942 describes ultrasonography guidance for needle placement used to visualize internal structures and guide instruments such as biopsy needles. The procedure uses high-frequency sound waves to create real-time images that show tissue planes and the location of a needle, enabling targeted sampling or intervention while minimizing injury to surrounding structures.
Service type: Imaging guidance for percutaneous needle procedures
Typical site of service: Hospital outpatient departments, ambulatory surgical centers, and imaging or procedure suites where needle biopsies and other percutaneous interventions are performed.
Clinical & Coding Specifications
Clinical Context
A 58-year-old outpatient presents to an interventional radiology suite for an ultrasound-guided core needle biopsy of a suspicious 2.2 cm palpable thyroid nodule identified on prior ultrasound and correlated with a fine-needle aspiration recommendation. The clinical workflow begins with patient identification and informed consent, pre-procedure review of imaging and coagulation status, and sterile prep of the neck. The performing physician uses real-time ultrasonography to visualize the nodule, guide needle trajectory, and confirm needle tip placement within the target lesion for tissue sampling. Post-procedure, the site is observed for bleeding and the patient receives discharge instructions. Typical site of service is an outpatient imaging center, physician office, or hospital outpatient department where ultrasound guidance is available.
Coding Specifications
| Modifier | Description | When to Use |
|---|---|---|
26 | Professional component | When billing only the physician interpretation component of an ultrasound-guided procedure and the technical component is billed separately |
50 | Bilateral procedure | When the same ultrasound-guided intervention is performed on both paired organs during the same session |