Dermatology Coding Alert
READER QUESTIONS:
Make the 17110 and 40810 Distinction
Published on Sat Aug 08, 2009
Question:
California Subscriber
Answer:
Stick with 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) since the diagnosis is common warts (verruca vulgaris) or 078.10 (Viral warts, unspecified).Code 40810 (Excision of lesion of mucosa and submucosa, vestibule of mouth; without repair) is an excision code and does not apply when the procedure is simply destroying warts.
Caution:
Code 17110 is for destruction of benign lesions only, which includes laser surgery, electrosurgery, cryosurgery, chemosurgery, and surgical curettement. Guidelines for assigning code units for premalignant lesions (17000-17004) differ from those for benign lesions, so be sure to read the code descriptors carefully.Other Articles in this issue of
Dermatology Coding Alert
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