General Surgery Coding Alert

Dig deeper to find the key to 'simple,' 'intermediate,' and 'complex' closures. Getting the wrong repair code could cost your practice plenty -- for instance, you'd lose $214 for a 2.5 cm complex trunk closure wrongly billed as a simple trunk repair. And considering that some procedures include simple closure but allow you to separately bill for complex closure, you stand to lose even more if you don't distinguish repair complexity. Read on for our experts' advice on how to assess the three closure levels and assign the best codes to earn your practice the pay you deserve -- every time. Follow the Layers, Not the Depth, for Simple Repair A simple repair involves primarily the dermis and epidermis. It might involve subcutaneous tissues, but not deep layers. Draw the line: How do you know when a closure might involve subcutaneous layers but is still considered a simple repair? The difference is [...]