General Surgery Coding Alert

If you-re looking for a easy way to decide if you should report a separate wound repair code with an excision for your Medicare payer, try this cheat sheet.

Just match the excision code(s) with the type of repair to see whether the repair is included or whether you can report the repair as a separate procedure.

Excision                                                 Repair
Benign               Simple                         Intermediate                 Complex
11400                  Included                        Included                        Included

11401-11406      Included                        Separate                       Separate

11420                  Included                          Included                        Included

11421-11426        Included                        Separate                       Separate

11440                    Included                       Included                        Included

11441-11446        Included                        Separate                       Separate

Malignant          Simple                          Intermediate                 Complex

11600-11646        Included                        Separate                       Separate