General Surgery Coding Alert

Stick with what you know about lesion excision coding, experts say. If the recent National Government Services (NGS) information about lesion excision coding has your practice up in arms, youre not alone. Coders have been asking questions and raising red flags about the recent local coverage determination (LCD). But dont fret: NGS plans to rescind the LCD advice about lesion excisions,experts say. Decipher the NGS LCD The portion of the NGS LCD that has led to controversy is in the general information section toward the bottom of the LCD. That section reads: While it is recognized that some diagnoses resulting from an excision will at times be malignant, the diagnosis at the time the procedure was performed would most likely be 239.2 (Neoplasms of unspecified nature; bone, soft tissue, and skin), and this would be the appropriate code, since proper coding requires the highest level of diagnosis known at the [...]