Wiki Coding E/M with general mole,lesion removals

[jmwallen]

If a patient comes into the office with a mole,lesion,skin tag etc and the doctor decides to have it removed in the office can an office visit charge be billed at the same time with modifier 25 attached? Or does the E/M have to have a different diagnosis attached to it from the CPT? I know if it was established from a previous visit that he was coming in to have it removed only the surgery charge is billed. But this would be differnt that the dr has to evaluate the lesion and then decide to do the procedure. This is holding up claims especially with a certain insurance so any help would be great.

 

[mitchellde]

If you look on appendix A of the AMA version of the CPT book the 25 modifier dies not require a separate dc be attached to the E&M different from the surgery