Primary Care Coding Alert

Question:A patient comes in with swelling and minor blisters on the tops of his feet. The physician diagnoses sunburn and treats it with a cold, wet compress on the area. He discusses several factors (the sunburn, expected progression, proper treatment, pain management, prevention). Should I use an E/M code for the burn treatment?Answer.Since the burn care involves treatment, you can report 16000 (Initial treatment, first degree burn, when no more than local treatment is required) for the burn care. You may report this in addition to a modifier 25 appended to the E/M service provided documentation supports a significant, separately identifiable E/M service, such as 99212-25 (Office or other outpatient visit for the evaluation and management of an established patient ...). Code 16000 adds over $65 to the claim, according to the 2010 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (1.78 total non-facility relative value units multiplied by the current 2010 Medicare conversion [...]