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General Surgery Coding Alert

You Be the Coder:

Bone Up on Scar Revision

Published on Sun Aug 12, 2012

Question: For a patient requiring revision of a scar on his left leg, our surgeon excised a 19 cm strip of skin containing scar tissue and performed layered closure. Should we use a benign lesion excision code for this service? Indiana Subscriber Answer: No, you should not use a benign lesion excision code for this service, either alone or in combination with intermediate or complex closure codes. Instead, you should list a complex wound repair code for the service. Specifically: For complex repair of a 19 cm defect on the leg, list 13121 (Repair, complex, scalp, arms, and/or legs; 2.6 cm to 7.5 cm) for the first 7.5 cm, plus +13122 x 3 (... each additional 5 cm or less [List separately in addition to code for primary procedure]) for the remaining 11.5 cm. Excision included: You should not use a benign lesion code (such as 11406, Excision, benign lesion [...]
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