Wiki Procedures of the Eye Lid

[dballard2004]

I have a provider asking how to code for procedures performed on the eyelid. This would involve destruction - in our clinic this would mean cryotherapy (liquid nitrogen), electrocautery, or sometimes snip excision.

We do this for benign lesions (wart, seborrheic keratosis) and pre-cancerous (actinic keratoses). This in reference to the skin of the eyelid margin only.

Would we report the codes from the integumentary system or from the eye surgery section (such as 67840)?

Thanks.

 

[ZubairHameed]

The selection of accurate and profitable code among both depends on the location, type and size of the lesions. As the 67840 holds more RVU than the codes for integumentary system codes that makes it more profitable but choosing one among them depends on location. E.g To be able to report 67840, the ophthalmologist has to remove more than just skin. As you wrote the excision is done on skin of the eyelid margin. You'd have too choose code from 17000-17111 depending on the type of lesion. Since there is no procedure notes attached, you'd have to choose among the two codes (17000-17111 or 67840-67850) depending on the notes, I have attached a link to an article by AAPC that help you choose the code.

Note:- Check 67850 as well as it involves destruction but lesion size is up to 1 cm for this code.

link: https://www.aapc.com/codes/coding-n...o-the-chase-with-eyelid-lesion-coding-article

 

[dballard2004]

Thank you so much!