Podiatry Coding & Billing Alert

Question: My physician billed a 99202 (Office or other outpatient visit) with a 17110 (Destruction of benign lesion) and we are being denied for the modifier on the 17110. Here is what we had billed:

99202-25

17110-T6

*17110 was denied for modifier

We changed to:

99202-25

17110-RT

*17110 was denied for modifier

Any thought on what modifier I should be using to get paid?

New York Subscriber

Answer: CPT code 17110 (Destruction [eg, laser surgery, electrosurgery, cryosurgery, chemosurgery, surgical curettement], of benign lesions other than skin tags or cutaneous vascular proliferative lesions; up to 14 lesions), typically does not require a location modifier. The carrier you are billing may have their edits set for no modifier and recommends that you remove the location modifier. In both cases, 99202-25 and 17110 are correct, just without the location modifiers.