Dermatology Coding Alert
Reader Questions:
Forget Bilateral Modifiers for Verrucae
Published on Thu Jun 03, 2010 
PDF
PDF
Question:
Arizona Subscriber
Answer:
Unfortunately not. Code 17110 (Destruction [e.g., laser surgery, electrosurgery, cryosurgery, chemosurgery, surgical curettement], of benign lesions other than skin tags or cutaneous vascular proliferative lesions; up to 14 lesions) includes treatment of wart number one through 14, regardless of location. You should not report this code twice for bilateral treatments. Some dermatologists opt to use 17000 (Destruction [e.g., laser surgery, electrosurgery, cryosurgery, chemosurgery, surgical curettement], premalignant lesions [e.g., actinic keratoses]; first lesion) for the first wart and +17003 (... second through 14 lesions, each [List separately in addition to code for first lesion]) for each additional wart through number 14.Other Articles in this issue of
Dermatology Coding Alert
- Skin Procedures:
Follow 3 Steps to Find the Right Code for These 3 Integumentary Procedures
Key: Let method drive your biopsy-versus-destruction coding.You can more easily determine whether your dermatologist performed [...] - Evaluation and Management:
Scope Out Potential Level 4 and 5 E/Ms By Knowing Crucial HPI Facts
Watch out for CPT/Medicare differences when counting HPI elements.If you're not accurately accounting for the [...] - Recovery Audit Contractors:
Stay on Top of RAC Requests to Meet All Deadlines
RACs ID insufficient documentation as weakness among practices.Recovery audit contractors (RACs) can retroactively deny your [...] - News You Can Use:
Welcome a 2.2 Percent Medicare Pay Boost For the Rest of This Year -- Finally
But the news isn't all good -- first, you faced a week of lower payments, and [...] - You Be the Coder:
Carcinoma Excision With Tissue Transfer Closure
Question: My surgeon excised a carcinoma of the face. He closed the excision using adjacent [...] - Reader Questions:
Depth and Location Matter Most for Lipomas
Question: Recently, our dermatologist excised 18 lipomas from a patient's right arm, and 14 from [...] - Reader Questions:
Forget Bilateral Modifiers for Verrucae
Question: If a patient has bilateral verrucae (078.19) and the doctor treats two sites, one [...] - Reader Questions:
You'll Get Mixed Signals on Complex Closure With Soft Tissue Tumor
Question: Based on the CPT description and notes, it appears that the new soft tissue [...]
View All