ED Coding and Reimbursement Alert

Question: A 77 year old patient presented after having suffered a fall from the back porch caused by feeling dizzy after looking up at an approaching storm. He suffered minor bruising and a 1.7 cm laceration on his right cheek from hitting a hedge. The emergency physician performs an examination consistent with a level 3 ED visit seeking the reasons for the fall and verifying no additional injuries needing treatment. He diagnoses the reason for the fall as vertigo and cleans the cheek wound before deciding to close it using Dermabond adhesive. What is the proper coding for this scenario?Missouri SubscriberAnswer: Because the patient is of Medicare age, you need to report the simple repair using the G code G0168 (Wound closure using tissue adhesive[s] only) for the tissue adhesive rather than the CPT® code 12011(Simple repair of superficial wounds of face, ears, eyelids, nose, lips and/or mucous membranes; 2.5 [...]