janet0221
Contributor
I am new to plastic surgery coding. I have heard conflicting information. I know not to charge the rotation flap with an excision of a lesion and that the code includes it. However, when my physician excises the basal cell lesion deeply into the fascia or muscle, can I use the soft tissue codes? I saw this info online-These new (2010 soft tissue) codes are not to be used to describe the excision of lesions originating in the cutaneous layers, e.g., benign skin lesions, basal cell carcinoma, melanoma. These lesions will continue to be reported with the appropriate code from the 11400-11446 and 11600-11646 series, so if this is true, you would only chg the flap.
In the description of lesion excisions in the above series, it says for full thickness only. Do you follow this for only full thickness excisions and the soft tissue or radical excision for the deeper ones? How does the new code 21013 differ for instance? What also about cysts that extend deeper?
Thanks!!
In the description of lesion excisions in the above series, it says for full thickness only. Do you follow this for only full thickness excisions and the soft tissue or radical excision for the deeper ones? How does the new code 21013 differ for instance? What also about cysts that extend deeper?
Thanks!!