25 questions on the CPT 30000 series — nasal and sinus endoscopy, laryngoscopy, bronchoscopy, chest tubes and pleurodesis, lung resection, coronary stents, cardiac devices, transcatheter valves, endarterectomy and bypass, dialysis access, veins, spleen, bone marrow and mediastinoscopy. Every question is a vignette where you pick the code. Free, untimed, with a worked explanation for every answer.
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The CPT 30000 series is two large chapters in one blueprint domain: the respiratory system from the nose to the pleura, and the cardiovascular system from the heart and its devices out to the dialysis circuit, with the hemic and lymphatic systems, the mediastinum and the diaphragm at the end. It is the section where most candidates lose time, because the codes are long, the families look alike, and the detail that decides the answer is usually one clause in the descriptor.
Every question here is a vignette: a short synthetic procedure note, then pick the code. That is the shape of the real exam, and it is deliberately not a definitions quiz.
Fourteen sub-topics, weighted towards the areas that produce the most errors:
Three patterns account for most wrong answers in this chapter. Reporting a guidance code that the procedure already includes. Reporting a base code twice, sometimes with a modifier, where CPT provides an add-on code or treats the whole artery as one unit of service. And reading past the clause that names the approach or the conduit, which is usually the only difference between two codes that are otherwise word for word the same.
A fourth is quietly costly: studying from material that is out of date. Code families in this section are revised often, and a rule learned from an old edition will feel right and still be wrong.
Every question carries a worked explanation that says why each wrong option is wrong, not only why the right one is right. A correct answer reached by elimination is worth revisiting — on the real exam the same rule will come back with different distractors.
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 straight away. 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.
Two body systems plus three smaller ones. The respiratory system runs from the nose and sinuses through the larynx, trachea and bronchi to the lungs and pleura. The cardiovascular system covers the heart and pericardium, implanted cardiac devices, valves, arteries and veins, and the dialysis circuit. The series then closes with the hemic and lymphatic systems, the mediastinum and the diaphragm.
Only when the code you are reporting does not already include it. Many 30000 series codes state that guidance is included, among them percutaneous core needle biopsy of the lung, pericardiocentesis, dialysis circuit interventions and endovenous ablation, and each carries a parenthetical note listing the guidance codes not to report with it. Read that note before adding a guidance code.
By artery, then by lesion. One major coronary artery and its branches is a single unit of service, so a second stent in the same artery is not a second base code. One code covers one lesion involving one or more segments, and a separate code covers two or more distinct lesions with two or more stents deployed in two or more segments of that artery. This family has been revised, so verify it in your current CPT Professional edition rather than from older study notes.
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.