Wiki Can we bill for suture removal ??

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Orthocoderpgu

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Patient comes in who has previusly had surgery. Because of the patient's age, it seems that they "forgot" to get the sutures removed. Our doc evaluated a UTI and abdominal mass. Our doc notices that the patient's sutures have never been removed and need to be. He removes 9 of them that the surgeon did not because the patient did not go back.

Can our doc charge for removing these and if so, how?
 
Only as part of the E/M

Suture removal will be part of your E/M visit. The only time you can code/bill this separately is when you take the patient to the OR for removal under anesthesia.

F Tessa Bartels, CPC, CEMC
 
There is a code for this but it is not covered by Medicare, which I am guessing your patient is probably on.

S0630 Removal of sutures; by a physician other than the physician who originally closed the wound.

Laura, CPC, CEMC
 
I don't bill medicare because I am working for a pediatrician's office but we frequently remove sutures that were placed by someone else. The S0630 code that Laura mentiond is the code we use. If an unrelated E/M was performed on the same date you can also code for it using a modifer 25 on the office visit. We do receive remibursement from some commercial carriers on this service.

Hope this helps.
 
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