Summary & Overview
HCPCS A4932: Rectal Thermometer, Reusable
HCPCS Level II code A4932 identifies a reusable rectal thermometer supplied as a discrete durable medical equipment item. This code matters nationally because temperature measurement is a fundamental clinical monitoring task across inpatient, outpatient, and long-term care settings; standardized coding supports supply tracking, billing consistency, and inventory management for providers and payers. Key payers covered in this analysis include Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna Health, UnitedHealthcare, and Medicare.
Readers will find a concise overview of what A4932 represents, the typical service contexts where it is used, and the payer landscape that governs coverage and claim processing. The publication summarizes benchmarking and reimbursement context where available, highlights relevant billing practices and common modifiers, and outlines clinical and administrative considerations for durable medical equipment used for vital-sign measurement. Where granular data elements are not provided, the report notes that those data points are not available in the input. The content is intended for billing managers, clinical administrators, and policy analysts seeking a national perspective on coding and operational implications for reusable rectal thermometers.
Billing Code Overview
HCPCS Level II code A4932 represents a rectal thermometer, reusable, any type, each. The service type for this code is durable medical equipment for measurement/monitoring of body temperature. The typical site of service is inpatient or outpatient clinical settings where vital signs are obtained, including hospitals, physician offices, clinics, long-term care facilities, and other settings that provide direct patient measurement and monitoring.
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Clinical & Coding Specifications
Clinical Context
A typical patient is a pediatric or adult patient presenting in an outpatient clinic, long-term care facility, or inpatient ward who requires periodic rectal temperature monitoring and for whom a reusable rectal thermometer is clinically indicated. Common scenarios include febrile infants needing accurate core temperature measurement, patients with impaired oral or tympanic access (e.g., facial trauma, severe nasal obstruction), neurologically impaired adults in long-term care with unreliable peripheral readings, and perioperative or critical care patients when precise core temperature is required. The clinical workflow: provider assesses need for core temperature measurement, selects an appropriate device such as a reusable rectal thermometer (A4932), documents indication and informed consent if required by facility policy, labels or assigns device to patient per infection control protocol, performs measurement with appropriate precautions and lubrication, documents temperature value and device identifier in the medical record, and follows cleaning/sterilization procedures for reuse or returns device to designated storage. Infection control steps, patient positioning, and privacy measures are documented in the encounter record.
Coding Specifications
| Modifier | Description | When to Use |
|---|---|---|
00 | No modifier | Routine use when no modifier is required for the service |