General Surgery Coding Alert

Halt 15340, 15360 'global days' prejudice.When your surgeon applies a tissue-cultured skin or dermal substitute for Medicare patients with lower extremity ulcers due to venous statis or diabetes, you have two temporary "G" codes you should be using this year.Shift From CPT® to HCPCS for MedicareWhether Apligraf or Dermagraft, you should use G0440 (Application of tissue cultured allogeneic skin substitute or dermal substitute; for use on lower limb, includes the site preparation and debridement if performed; first 25 sq cm or less) and G0441 (... each additional 25 sq cm) to report your surgeon's work in 2011.That's a change from using existing CPT® codes for the service, which depend on the type of skin or dermal substitute as follows:Apligraf -- 15340-+15341 (Tissue cultured allogeneic skin substitute ...)Dermagraft -- 15360-+15361 (Tissue cultured allogeneic dermal substitute, trunk, arms, legs ...) or 15365-+15366 (Tissue cultured allogeneic dermal substitute, face, scalp, eyelids, mouth, neck, ears, orbits, [...]