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Primary Care Coding Alert

Reader Questions:

Choose Either 17110 or 17111 for Removal, Not Both

Published on Thu Mar 17, 2011

Question: The physician removed plantar warts from each of a patient's feet. Do I submit the claim with right/left location modifiers?West Virginia SubscriberAnswer: You shouldn't need to include modifiers such as LT (Left side) or RT (Right side). Instead, count the number of lesions removed and submit either 17110 (Destruction [e.g., laser surgery, electrosurgery, cryosurgery, chemosurgery, surgical curettement], of benign lesions other than skin tags or cutaneous vascular proliferative lesions; up to 14 lesions) or 17111 (...15 or more lesions).Explanation: The code descriptors specify the total number of lesions removed but don't distinguish between body areas. Therefore, the lesions included in your code count can be from multiple anatomic sites.Remember: Note that 17111 is not an add-on code, so you shouldn't report 17110 and 17111 on the same claim. This "either/or" code selection differs from similar code families such as destruction codes 17000-17003 that have a "single lesion" code and [...]
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