Wiki Coding Question

[mich_baldwin]

Can you bill the code 11602 and 17262 on the same claim if it was on the same lesion? We did perform both services and have a pathology report. What is the best way to bill these services?

 

[CatchTheWind]

You can't bill them both, as the destruction "includes" the excision. So you would bill just the destruction. You could try billing more than you usually would for a destruction and adding modifier 22 (increased services) to see if you can get paid more.

 

[JesseL]

You can't bill them both, as the destruction "includes" the excision. So you would bill just the destruction. You could try billing more than you usually would for a destruction and adding modifier 22 (increased services) to see if you can get paid more.

I would have thought to bill only the excision since the excision has higher RVU. Or whatever the intent of the procedure was. I imagine the intent was to excise the lesion with wide margins and the decision to do further destruction came secondary.