Professional Component
of Clinical Pathology
(PCCP)

1. What is it?

• If your doctor orders testing of a specimen of your blood, urine, or other tissue, the specimen will be sent to the medical laboratory for analysis. The laboratory is directed by a pathologist, a physician who specializes in laboratory medicine. The pathologist is responsible for assuring that the results of your laboratory tests are clinically reliable and are reported to your doctor in a timely manner.​

• When a specimen of your blood, urine, stool, or similar material is sent to the laboratory, a pathologist may not have to review the specific specimen. Rather, in these situations, pathologists are responsible for quality assurance and quality control. They provide medical supervision of the technicians and technologists who work in the laboratory. They must be available to address problems that arise in the laboratory regarding specific results. Moreover, they must be available to answer any questions that your doctor might have about your laboratory results. Pathologists provide direction to the medical laboratory to assure the timeliness, reliability, and usefulness of your test results are referred to as the “professional component” of clinical pathology services.​

• Professional component of clinical pathology billing (PCCP), is where the pathologist bills for his/her oversight of a hospital laboratory. This is a common practice among pathology groups. Due to the work involved in setup (reports needed by the hospital), some hospital administrations will choose to increase medical directorship fees to offset the cost of this service.

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2. Who is Professional Analytics?

• Professional Analytics is a wholly owned subsidiary of Incyte Pathology and utilized for the sole purpose of billing the professional component of clinical pathology. Professional Analytics was developed several years ago.

  

3. Who do we bill for the services?

• We bill insurance and patients for these services. If the charge is not allowed by insurance, we do not send any statements to the patient. Patients are billed for any deductibles and / or co-pays.

 

4. How do patients know that they are getting a bill?

• This is up to the hospital to communicate with the patients. There is a great example of what hospitals can give to their patients from CAP (link below). PC Billing Information Package (cap.org)

5. Is there verbiage on the statements?

• Yes, the verbiage that is printed on every statement is below.

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7. Where can I learn more about professional component of clinical pathology (PCCP)?

•  www.captodayonline.com/Archives/feature_stories/component_billing.html