Primary Care Coding Alert

Answer: Although your FP notes that he "shaved" the plantar warts, this does not mean that he performed a shaving biopsy. Before attempting to destroy a wart by freezing or chemicals, the doctor prepares the wart's area by shaving it. Consequently, you should report the appropriate destruction code.

Because the FP merely destroyed the warts, select the codes from the destruction, benign or premalignant lesions subsection (17000-17250). Specifically, you should use 17000-17004 for plantar warts, which are painful warts on the sole usually caused by human papilloma virus type 1. CPT states, "For destruction of common or plantar warts, see 17000, 17003, 17004," which describe multiple lesion destruction. Therefore, for the first destroyed lesion, you should use 17000* ( first lesion). Note that +17003 ( second through 14 lesions, each [list separately in addition to code for first lesion]) is for each additional lesion through 14 lesions. Consequently, you should assign 17003 x 3 for the second through fourth warts. Link each lesion code to a diagnosis of 078.19 (Other specified viral warts).