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General Surgery Coding Alert

You Be the Coder:

Don't Confuse Cyst and FNA Aspirations

Published on Wed Jun 20, 2018

Question: If a surgeon performs a breast-cyst aspiration and submits the aspirate to pathology for evaluation, should we bill the service as 10021? Texas Subscriber Answer: No, 10021 (Fine needle aspiration; without imaging guidance) is not the best code to describe a breast-cyst aspiration procedure. Instead, you should report 19000 (Puncture aspiration of cyst of breast). Although the procedures are [...]
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