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Pediatric Coding Alert

Reader Questions:

Check Hand or Foot Before Coding FBR

Published on Tue Jul 01, 2008

Question: Using a needle to make an incision, a pediatrician removed a wood splinter from a patient's right foot. The insurer rejected 10120 as mismatching the diagnosis. Should I appeal the denial?North Dakota SubscriberAnswer: Before sending in a claim for foreign body removal (FBR), make sure you have assigned the most specific code for the anatomical area treated. For a foot FBR, CPT contains a specific code (28190, Removal of foreign body, foot; subcutaneous).If the pediatrician had instead removed the splinter from the patient's hand, you would use the general FBR code 10120 (Incision and removal of foreign body, subcutaneous tissues; simple).
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