UnitedHealthcare’s March 1, 2026 radiologic diagnostic procedures policy (MMP076.16, MDC 07) formally lists applicable CPT and unlisted nuclear medicine codes for hepatobiliary system and pancreas imaging. Hepatobiliary-specific codes 78226 (hepatobiliary imaging, including gallbladder) and 78227 (with pharmacologic intervention and quantitative measurements) are explicitly included. The policy also includes cross-cutting 3D rendering codes 76376 and 76377 for tomographic postprocessing and a broad set of nuclear medicine codes and unlisted procedure codes that situate hepatobiliary studies within a wider nuclear medicine code framework. The excerpt does not specify which codes were changed from prior versions; it reflects the current coding set effective 2026-03-01.
March 2026 Revision: Applicable CPT and Nuclear Medicine Codes Listed
This revision pertains to UnitedHealthcare's radiologic diagnostic procedures policy (MDC 07: Hepatobiliary System and Pancreas). The document excerpt lists applicable CPT and unlisted procedure codes relevant to hepatobiliary imaging and neighboring nuclear medicine studies. There is no explicit narrative in the excerpt describing a change log, but the presence of an "Applicable Codes" section with specified codes — including 78226, 78227, and several unlisted nuclear medicine codes — reflects the current coding set for hepatobiliary system imaging as of the policy effective date.
The policy number is MMP076.16 and the effective date in the header is 2026-03-01. The excerpt does not provide prior-version comparisons, nor does it state which codes were added or removed in this revision. Therefore, the most concrete change-oriented statement available from the excerpt is the formal listing of the included CPT codes for hepatobiliary and related nuclear medicine procedures under this policy iteration.
Specified Hepatobiliary Imaging Codes: `78226` and `78227`
The document enumerates specific CPT codes for hepatobiliary system imaging. Notably, 78226 is listed as "Hepatobiliary system imaging, including gallbladder when present," and 78227 is listed with the qualifier "with pharmacologic intervention, including quantitative measurement(s) when performed." These two codes explicitly target hepatobiliary imaging services that may include the gallbladder and may involve pharmacologic maneuvers and quantitative measurements.
Surrounding these hepatobiliary-specific codes is a set of other nuclear medicine procedure codes and unlisted procedure codes (–, , , , , , etc.), indicating that the policy's applicable code list covers a broad range of endocrine, hematopoietic/lymphatic, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, respiratory, nervous system, and genitourinary nuclear medicine procedures in addition to hepatobiliary imaging.
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