Otolaryngology Coding Alert

Question: My doctor needs to excise a scar on a patient that had a parotid mass excised in 1995. Our physician was not the surgeon at that time. Can I use the excision lesion codes?

Florida Subscriber 

Answer:  You should report scar revisions with the most appropriate code from the 131xx (Repair, complex …) series unless the completed an advancement flap/adjacent tissue transfer. In that situation, the procedure would fall under the 140xx (Adjacent tissue transfer or rearrangement …) code series. Both code sets are based on the anatomic site of the repair or tissue transfer.

A scar revision is the same as a benign lesion excision and repair. Depending on the type of repair, you might not be able to code the benign lesion excision. For example, you cannot code the benign lesion excision if the repair was an adjacent tissue transfer or rearrangement (also referred to as a flap). Depending on the type of repair (usually a complex or a flap), you would code the closure first and then possibly the benign lesion removal.