General Surgery Coding Alert
Reader Question:
Insertion of J-P Drain
Published on Sat Dec 01, 2001
Question: The patient had partial mastectomy with axillary lymph node dissection. Six months later, she returned to see the surgeon with a persistent seroma. A J-P drain was inserted. How should we bill for the insertion of the drain?
Ohio Subscriber
Answer: The correct code is 10160 (puncture aspiration of abscess, hematoma, bulla, or cyst), and it should be associated with diagnosis code 998.13 (seroma complicating a procedure). In this case, no incision and drainage was performed. If the surgeon had to make an incision to drain the seroma, however, the procedure would be coded 10140 (incision and drainage of hematoma, seroma or fluid collection).
Other Articles in this issue of
General Surgery Coding Alert
- Differentiate Thoracic Procedures To Ensure Proper Payment
Coding for thoracic procedures involving thoracotomy, which requires opening the patient's chest, and thoracoscopy, a [...] - Office Protocols Ensure Proper Billing Procedures
Surgery practices require protocols that guide the entire coding, billing and reimbursement process. Such protocols [...] - You Be the Coder:
Modified Radical Mastectomy
Test your coding knowledge. Determine how you would code this situation before looking at the [...] - Reader Question:
Placement of Metallic Localization Clip
Question: When is it appropriate to report 19295?
Tennessee Subscriber
Answer: The CPT 2002 manual introduces add-on [...] - Reader Question:
Insertion of J-P Drain
Question: The patient had partial mastectomy with axillary lymph node dissection. Six months later, she [...] - Reader Question:
Atypical Hyperplasia of Breast
Question: I have been using ICD-9 code 611.1 for atypical hyperplasia of the breast, but [...] - Reader Question:
Complications During a Procedure
Question: During lysis of adhesions, the patients bowel was inadvertently nicked. Should we report this [...] - Reader Question:
Excision of Single Varicose Vein
Question: The surgeon notes a 5-mm well-circumscribed blue firm mass palpable within the varicose vein [...] - Reader Question:
Tourniquet Time and Modifier -22
Question: We did a below-knee amputation on a patient. The operative report states that the [...] - Reader Question:
Axillary Lump Diagnosis
Question: I cannot find a diagnosis code that accurately reports an axillary lump. Should 611.72 [...] - Correction:
Mammograms
General Surgery Coding Alert, October 2001, page 77, notes that three new ICD-9 mammogram codes [...]
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