20926 vs 15877

[kristy2]

I bill for a Plastic Surgeon who does primarily breast reconstruction surgery. The surgeon often does fat harvesting w/ injections to correct soft tissue deficiencies of the breast.

I am struggling with how to code for the harvesting of the fat. According to his op notes the fat was obtained by "manual aspiration" with a syringe. I have gone through the CPT book a million times and these two codes are all I can find, but neither sound right. 20926 (tissue grafts, other) the fat is obtained through an incision. 15877 is a suction assisted lipectomy of the trunk. In the past when I have used this code it has been denied as cosmetic.

Would it be appropriate to use 20926 with mod 52 (reduced services)?

[docndent]

We have always used 20926 in this instance and the insurance companies usually pay