Wiki Dermabrasion post Mohs

[arozance27]

Does anyone have experience billing dermabrasion post Mohs? We are receiving lots of denials.

 

[thomas7331]

I worked with a Mohs surgeon a number of years ago who occasionally did these. As I remember, many payers consider this a cosmetic procedure and it's often not covered because of this. In addition, if it's done in the global period of the closure procedure following the Mohs, it would be considered part of the routine follow-up care and not separately payable even if covered. I believe that at the time, our surgeon often performed these as a courtesy service to his patients since it was usually a relatively quick and low cost procedure that helped improve the patients' satisfaction with the outcome of the Mohs so he felt it was worthwhile to do so rather than to try to fight it out with the payers. However, if you're receiving cosmetic denials, you may be able to appeal if the patient's insurance plan's language states that services performed to restore the patient's appearance after surgeries to remove malignancies are a covered benefit and the medical record shows that this is the case.

 

[cgifford]

We do these occasional and I append with the modifier 58 to state this was anticipated procedure due to the Mohs. I have had success with some insurance companies.