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General Surgery Coding Alert

You Be the Coder:

Avoid Dx Terms of ‘Uncertainty’

Published on Thu Aug 18, 2022

Question: In the office, our surgeon aspirated a painless “lump” behind the patient’s ear and submitted the fine needle aspirate for pathologic diagnosis. The pathology report stated that the cellular material was “consistent with” Pilomatrixoma. How should we code the diagnosis? Iowa subscriber Answer: You should report the diagnosis as R22.1 (Localized swelling, mass and lump, neck). You should not code this [...]
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