Summary & Overview
CPT 78305: Bone Scan (Scintigraphy) for Multi-Region Skeletal Evaluation
CPT code 78305 represents a multi-region or whole-body bone scan (scintigraphy), a nuclear medicine procedure that uses injected radionuclide tracer to assess bone metabolism across multiple skeletal sites. Nationally, bone scintigraphy remains important for diagnosing fractures, evaluating suspected metastatic disease, and investigating inflammatory or infectious bone conditions. The code captures the physician or professional service associated with performing and interpreting such studies.
Key payers covered in this analysis include Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna Health, UnitedHealthcare, and Medicare. Readers will find a concise overview of clinical context, typical sites of service, and the practical billing scope of the code. The publication also outlines common modifiers and payer coverage patterns where available, summarizes benchmark considerations, and highlights relevant policy and coding points that affect claim adjudication.
This review is intended to give billing managers, practice leaders, and policy analysts a clear national-level snapshot of CPT code 78305, what it represents clinically, and the areas that most commonly affect coding and reimbursement for bone scintigraphy services.
Billing Code Overview
CPT code 78305 describes a bone scan (scintigraphy), a nuclear medicine imaging procedure in which a radionuclide is injected prior to imaging to evaluate multiple areas of the skeleton and to diagnose bone disease. The procedure captures functional information about bone metabolism and is commonly used to detect fractures, infection, metastatic disease, and other skeletal disorders.
Service Type: Nuclear medicine imaging — whole-body or multi-region bone scintigraphy
Typical Site of Service: Hospital outpatient imaging departments, independent imaging centers, and specialized nuclear medicine facilities
Clinical & Coding Specifications
Clinical Context
A 62-year-old male with a history of prostate cancer presents with new-onset bone pain in the pelvis and lower back. The oncologist orders a whole-body bone scintigraphy to evaluate for osseous metastatic disease. The patient arrives at the nuclear medicine suite, consents to the study, and the technologist administers the intravenous radionuclide (commonly technetium-99m-labeled diphosphonate). After an uptake period of approximately 2–3 hours, the patient returns for planar whole-body imaging and spot views of the pelvis and lumbar spine. The interpreting nuclear medicine physician reviews images, compares with prior imaging when available, documents findings (foci of increased radiotracer uptake consistent with metastases versus degenerative change), and issues a formal report. The study is performed in an outpatient hospital radiology department or freestanding nuclear medicine/imaging center, with the typical site of service being an outpatient imaging center, hospital outpatient department, or ambulatory surgical center when appropriate. The service is coded using 78305 for a whole-body bone scan (bone scintigraphy) performed with radionuclide injection and subsequent imaging.
Coding Specifications
| Modifier | Description | When to Use |
|---|---|---|
26 | Professional component | When reporting only the physician interpretation of the nuclear medicine images (physician’s reading separate from technical component). |