ED Coding and Reimbursement Alert

Skin-deep fix could be worth $26 or $45, depending on debridement details. Remember that all the codes in the CPT debridement sections are within the physician's scope of practice, so it pays to know the most common debridement scenarios. If you undercode your physician's debridement services, you could lose easy money. Cut Into 'Viable Tissue' a Giveaway ... Sometimes Your ED physician will see many patients requiring surface-level debridement; he might also treat patients needing surgical bone and muscle debridement on occasion, confirms Sharon Richardson, RN, who works in the compliance office at Emergency Groups' Office in Arcadia, Calif. So what makes a debridement claim stand out? "The debridement codes [often] focus on debridement 'to viable tissue,' according to CPT. CPT does not, however, require a margin of healthy tissue; sometimes that is impossible or can only be achieved with multiple staged procedures," explains Marcella Bucknam, CPC, CCS-P, CPC-H, CCS, [...]