Summary & Overview
CPT 84376: Single Saccharide Test for Urine or Stool
Headline: CPT code 84376: Single Saccharide Test for Urine or Stool
Lead: CPT code 84376 identifies a laboratory assay that detects a single sugar (saccharide) in patient specimens, most often urine or stool. The code is reported for each specimen tested and is used across clinical laboratories and hospital labs for diagnostic and monitoring purposes.
What this code represents and why it matters: CPT code 84376 denotes a focused laboratory diagnostic procedure to determine the presence of a single saccharide. This targeted test supports diagnosis and management of metabolic, gastrointestinal, and infectious conditions where sugar detection in excreta is clinically relevant. Nationally, standardized reporting of this code facilitates consistent lab billing and clinical data capture.
Key payers covered: The analysis considers major national payers, including Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna Health, UnitedHealthcare, and Medicare.
What readers will learn: Readers will get a concise explanation of the clinical context and typical sites of service for CPT code 84376, an overview of payer relevance, and guidance on where to find additional details. Data elements not provided in the input are explicitly noted as unavailable. The content is aimed at billing specialists, lab managers, and policy analysts seeking a national-level summary of this laboratory billing code.
Billing Code Overview
CPT code 84376 describes a laboratory test performed by a lab analyst to detect the presence of a single sugar (saccharide), most commonly in urine or stool specimens. The code is reported once for each specimen tested.
Service type: Clinical laboratory diagnostic test
Typical site of service: Clinical laboratory or hospital laboratory
Clinical & Coding Specifications
Clinical Context
A 28-year-old outpatient presents to a primary care clinic with a three-day history of watery diarrhea and intermittent abdominal cramping after recent travel. The clinician orders basic stool studies and a point-of-care urine dipstick for evaluation of possible infectious gastroenteritis and dehydration. In the laboratory, a medical technologist or lab analyst receives a single urine specimen and/or a stool specimen and performs a qualitative single-sugar (single saccharide) test to detect reducing substances (commonly used to screen for glucose, fructose, or other monosaccharides in stool or urine). The analyst documents specimen accession, performs the assay according to the laboratory procedure, interprets the qualitative result, and reports findings in the electronic laboratory system.
Typical workflow steps:
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Specimen collection by clinical staff and labeling with patient identifiers.
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Specimen transport to the clinical laboratory with chain-of-custody and accessioning by lab personnel.
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Performance of the single-sugar qualitative test on each individual specimen by a lab analyst using manual or automated methods.
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Documentation of results in the laboratory information system and communication to the ordering clinician.
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If abnormal, additional reflex testing or confirmatory assays may be ordered by the clinician (e.g., quantitative assays, stool culture, ova and parasites, or specific carbohydrate analyses).
Coding Specifications
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