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Pathology/Lab Coding Alert

Skin Specimens:

88304-88305: Make Sure You Don't Upcode for Cancer

Published on Fri May 04, 2012

Stick to skin-origin codes regardless of depth or size. No one's happy reporting a skin code when the pathologist examines a large, cancerous skin specimen that has spread to subcutaneous tissue and requires margin evaluation. Those examinations are more work -- so can you use a musculoskeletal code that pays more? Find the answer as you read on to make sure that you understand the skin-code boundaries. You'll also learn one little trick that might ethically earn your pathologist more pay for those difficult skin specimens. Focus on 3 Skin Codes Regardless of size, depth, or neoplastic status, CPT® provides only the following three codes to describe skin-specimen pathology services: 88302 -- Level II - Surgical pathology, gross and microscopic examination, skin, plastic repair 88304 -- Level III - Surgical pathology, gross and microscopic examination, skin - cyst/tag/debridement 88305 -- Level IV - Surgical pathology, gross and microscopic examination, skin, other than cyst/tag/debridement/plastic repair. [...]
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