Dermatology Coding Alert
Reader Questions:
Forget Bilateral Modifiers for Verrucae
Published on Thu Jun 03, 2010
Question:
Arizona Subscriber
Answer:
Unfortunately not. Code 17110 (Destruction [e.g., laser surgery, electrosurgery, cryosurgery, chemosurgery, surgical curettement], of benign lesions other than skin tags or cutaneous vascular proliferative lesions; up to 14 lesions) includes treatment of wart number one through 14, regardless of location. You should not report this code twice for bilateral treatments. Some dermatologists opt to use 17000 (Destruction [e.g., laser surgery, electrosurgery, cryosurgery, chemosurgery, surgical curettement], premalignant lesions [e.g., actinic keratoses]; first lesion) for the first wart and +17003 (... second through 14 lesions, each [List separately in addition to code for first lesion]) for each additional wart through number 14.Other Articles in this issue of
Dermatology Coding Alert
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Watch out for CPT/Medicare differences when counting HPI elements.If you're not accurately accounting for the [...] - Recovery Audit Contractors:
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Question: My surgeon excised a carcinoma of the face. He closed the excision using adjacent [...] - Reader Questions:
Depth and Location Matter Most for Lipomas
Question: Recently, our dermatologist excised 18 lipomas from a patient's right arm, and 14 from [...] - Reader Questions:
Forget Bilateral Modifiers for Verrucae
Question: If a patient has bilateral verrucae (078.19) and the doctor treats two sites, one [...] - Reader Questions:
You'll Get Mixed Signals on Complex Closure With Soft Tissue Tumor
Question: Based on the CPT description and notes, it appears that the new soft tissue [...]
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