General Surgery Coding Alert
Treat Foot FBRs Differently Than Soft-Tissue FBRs
Question: During an unrelated visit, the surgeon performed simple foreign-body removal (FBR) on a patient with a wood splinter in her right foot. I reported 10120 for the service and received a denial. Is this correct? Therefore, in this case you should report 28190.
Minnesota Subscriber
Answer: The payer was correct to deny the claim because you chose the wrong code for foot FBRs.
Why? You should not code foot FBRs the same as FBRs from other body parts. Code 10120 (Incision and removal of foreign body, subcutaneous tissues; simple) is for soft-tissue FBRs, but CPT does not consider the foot soft tissue.
When your physician removes a foreign body from a patient's foot, choose from these codes:
- 28190 -- Removal of foreign body, foot; subcutaneous
- 28192 -- ... deep
- 28193 -- ... complicated.
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