Wiki 10060 vs 10061-I have read

[deja08]

I have read several articles that state that if a physician uses packing in an incision and drainage, you would code it as 10061. The Desk Reference even states that if packing is used to code 10061. After reading all of this material, it seems that the reason for coding 10061 is because the abscess needed packing or there were multiple abscess. I did receive an error on an audit because I coded an abscess with I&D with packing as 10061. Can anyone tell me where I might find detalied information on this code.

Thanks,
Gina Warner, CPC, CPC-P

 

[haadi]

Incision and Drainage Abscess
CPT Assistant, Special Issue 2005, page 7

Question:

If an incision and drainage is performed for one abscess on the arm and one on the leg, would it be appropriate to report code 10060 two times? Or should code 10061 be reported one time?

AMA Comment:

Many of the incision and drainage (I & D) procedures include one code for simple procedures and one code for complicated procedures; however, the terms simple and complicated are not defined in the CPT codebook. Rather, the choice of code is at the physician's discretion, based on the level of difficulty involved in the incision and drainage procedure. It is important to note that code 10060, Incision and drainage of abscess (eg, carbuncle, suppurative hidradenitis, cutaneous or subcutaneous abscess, cyst, furuncle, or paronychia); simple or single, should be reported for a simple or single I & D procedure.

Code 10061, Incision and drainage of abscess (eg, carbuncle, suppurative hidradenitis, cutaneous or subcutaneous abscess, cyst, furuncle, or paronychia); complicated or multiple, should be reported for a complicated or multiple I & D procedure.

Therefore, if simple I & D procedures are performed on multiple lesions, then the appropriate code is 10061.

hope this helps

thanks.