Wiki Skin Specimens

[vkazmierczak]

Would a skin specimen ever be coded as an 88309? I have an example of a a skin specimen with a diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma. The dimensions are 4 cm x 5 cm. It was excised to a depth of .5 cm. Would this be an 88309 (skin, deep excision with tumor) or 88305 (skin, other than cyst/tag/deb/pr)?

 

[whaleheadking]

It is skin, other than cyst, tag, debridement, or plastic repair. Skin specimens are never more than a Level V specimen. Size, complexity, diagnosis, etc. have no bearing on code assignment.

WK
SurgPath Coding Blog