Wiki Electrocautery for Hemangiomas

[aschaeve]

I have a physician who documented 2 hemangiomas were treated with electrocautery, used without anesthetic on a low setting using the hyfrecator. What CPT code would you bill? 17110 or 17106.

Any help would be appreciated.

Alicia, CPC

 

[MMBAYNE]

Hello, I see where it gets confusing, the descriptions of the cpts are kind of tricky, but I would code 17106 because it is performed on hemangiomas which are cutaneous vascular lesions. The description of 17110 states destruction of benign lesions OTHER THAN skin tags or cutaneous vascular proliferative lesions. Hope that helps

 

[aschaeve]

I just want to make sure that to use code 17106, which states laser technique, that electrocautery would fall under this.

Thanks,

Alicia, CPC

 

[pclaybaugh]

Further Guidance

I realize this is an old thread and the following guidance was not available when the original question was posted. As i had to research this very subject, the following may help the next member.
CPT Asst October 2010 states:

Codes 17106-17108 are specific to destruction of benign cutaneous vascular proliferative lesions (eg, port wine stains), and are reported based on square centimeters. Only one code would be reported for the total square centimeters of the area treated. For example, if the treated area is 45 sq cm, only code 17107 would be reported. It is not appropriate to report codes 17106-17108 for the treatment of lesions such as telangiectasia, cherry angioma, verruca vulgaris, and telangiectasia associated with rosacea or psoriasis.

Further research points to 17110 and 17111 as the correct codes.