Pediatric Coding Alert

Question: Which CPT code(s) should I use for a splinter removal?

Answer: You should usually include splinter removal in the E/M service, such as 99212-99215 (Office or other outpatient visit for the evaluation and management of an established patient ...).

Sometimes, however, you may use a surgical foreign-body removal code. If the pediatrician makes an incision, you may report a separate CPT code. Depending on the pediatrician's documentation in the medical record, you may use either 10120 (Incision and removal of foreign body, subcutaneous tissues; simple) or 10121 (... complicated).

- Answers to You Be the Coder and Reader Questions provided by Jane M. Dodds, MPH, FACMPE, former president of the Medical Group Management Association's Primary Care Assembly; Jeffrey Linzer Sr., MD, MICP, FAAP, American Academy of Pediatrics representative to the ICD-9-CM editorial advisory board; Diane M. Minard, CPC, pediatrics coding advisor for Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H.; Richard A. Molteni, MD, FAAP, a neonatologist and medical director at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle; Peter D. Rappo, MD, FAAP, assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at Harvard University School of Medicine in Brockton, Mass.; Charles A. Scott, MD, FAAP, pediatrician at Medford Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine PA in Medford, N.J.; and Patricia S. Wildman, RHIA, CCS-P, clinical reimbursement auditor at Children's Hospital Boston.