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Wiki Excision with Frozen Section / Mohs

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MaryG215

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With all the talk about appropriate use criteria for Mohs surgery, a question came up: is it correct/legal to charge for an excision, a repair and ALSO a frozen section (11621, 12042 & 88331)? The patient was scheduled for surgery on a squamous cell on the neck and it was determined by the surgeon that Mohs surgery wasn't appropriate so she billed the above three codes. The excision was done with frozen section margin control technique. Thank you
 
Hi,
I would say it depends on what you documentation states. Here is the lays description of 88331.
These procedures may also be referred to as an intraoperative pathology exam with frozen section (FS). A pathology consultation involves an opinion or advice on the presence or absence of diseased or abnormal tissue provided at the request of another physician. These codes describe such a pathology consultation during the course of a surgery.
The key words here are requested by another physician.
But if the your provider did a biopsy and the path came back and they were going to do Moh's and then did an excision then that code would be inappropriate.
Hope this helps.
 
So if the physician does an excision with frozen section margin control, it IS okay to bill the excision (11621) with the frozen (88331)? Thank you
 
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