Pediatric Coding Alert
Remove Paring Code in This Lesion Destruction Encounter
Question: Our pediatrician recently removed a wart from a patient’s hand. She began by paring down the wart, then used chemosurgery to finish the removal. In this situation, can we bill for both the paring and the cryotherapy with 11055 and 17110? Or should we bill this another way? Ohio Subscriber Answer: Even though there is no National Correct Coding Initiative (NCCI) edit prohibiting you from doing so, it would not be appropriate to bill 11055 (Paring or cutting of benign hyperkeratotic lesion (eg, corn or callus); single lesion) with 17110 (Destruction (eg, laser surgery, electrosurgery, cryosurgery, chemosurgery, surgical curettement), of benign lesions other than skin tags or cutaneous vascular proliferative lesions; up to 14 lesions) in this situation. That’s because you should only code the procedure that actually led to the wart’s removal. While the paring may have contributed to destroying the wart, the final part of the process that removed the patient’s wart completely was the chemosurgery. So, in this situation, you would bill the more comprehensive procedure, which would be the 17110.
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Remove Paring Code in This Lesion Destruction Encounter
Question: Our pediatrician recently removed a wart from a patient’s hand. She began by paring [...]
