General Surgery Coding Alert

Use the table matrix and decision tree to pick the right code -- every time. CPT 2010's overwhelming number of new and revised soft tissue tumor and resection codes will make choosing the proper code a challenge. We're here to help. You learned four tips for selecting the proper new or revised CPT 2010 soft tissue tumor code in last month's article, "Make Sure Your Tumor Excisions 'Measure Up' Starting Jan. 1." Now you can supercharge that knowledge with the following tools: Know How to Measure Tumor Size Since code selection partly depends on the soft tissue tumor's size, how will you get that information? "Just measure it," advised John P. Heiner, MD, professor at University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics in Madison at the CPT and RBRVS 2010 Annual Symposium in Chicago. You should measure the longest dimension of an oblong mass, according to Heiner. The CPT manual gives specific [...]