25 questions on the CPT 40000 series — upper GI endoscopy, colonoscopy, ERCP, hernia repair, appendectomy, bowel resection, anorectal procedures, paracentesis, salivary glands, bariatric surgery and gastrostomy tubes. Most are full vignettes where you pick the code. Free, untimed, with a worked explanation for every answer.
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The Digestive System runs from the lips to the anus, and CPT codes it the same way: by the organ, then by the approach, then by exactly what was done. For most candidates the hard part is not the anatomy. It is the endoscopy families, where one scope can be reported with a dozen different codes, and the bundling notes decide which of them survive.
So this quiz is built as vignettes. Twenty-two of the twenty-five questions give you a short synthetic procedure note and ask for the code, the same shape as the real exam. The other three test the rules that decide whether a second service is coded at all.
Eleven sub-topics, weighted towards the areas that produce the most errors:
Most wrong answers in this chapter come from adding a code that the procedure already includes. A surgical endoscopy always includes the diagnostic one. Bleeding caused by the scope is not coded separately. Imaging guidance is built into some codes, such as paracentesis with imaging, and reported separately with others. Read the parenthetical notes under the code you are about to report every time; that is where most of these rules are written.
Every question carries a worked explanation that says why the wrong options are wrong, not just why the right one is right. A correct answer reached by elimination is worth revisiting — on the real exam the same bundling rule will appear with different distractors, and elimination will not be available.
The sub-topic breakdown on your score card is the useful output. A sub-topic below seventy per cent is a reading assignment, not a reason to retake the quiz immediately. Read the relevant CPT guidelines, leave it a few days, then come back.
Note on sources: code descriptors, guideline text and parenthetical instructions are as published by the AMA in the current CPT Professional edition. Always verify against your own current-year manual — the exam is taken with the edition in effect on your test date.
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Yes. All 25 questions, the sub-topic score breakdown and the worked explanation for every answer are free, with no sign-up and no payment.
The Digestive System subsection. It runs from the lips, mouth, salivary glands and pharynx through the esophagus, stomach, intestines, appendix, rectum and anus, then covers the liver, biliary tract, pancreas, abdomen, peritoneum and omentum, including hernia repair. The endoscopy codes for each organ sit inside that organ's range.
CPT directs flexible sigmoidoscopy codes when the endoscope is not advanced beyond the splenic flexure. If a patient prepared for colonoscopy has the scope pass the splenic flexure but not reach the cecum, a diagnostic colonoscopy is reported with modifier 53 and a therapeutic one with modifier 52. Check the Colonoscopy guidelines in your CPT Professional edition.
No. The anterior abdominal hernia repair codes include implantation of mesh or other prosthesis when performed, by any approach. They are reported once per session, based on the total length of all defects repaired, whether the hernia is initial or recurrent, and whether it is reducible or incarcerated.
Yes. The 25 questions are shuffled on every attempt, so a retake is not a memory test of the same sequence. Your answers are saved in your own browser for 24 hours, so a refresh or a stray back button does not lose them.