Wiki Excision Skin Benign Lesion - 11443

[jball]

Can someone clarify how to code the excision of two separate benign lesions on the face. Based on the size it was coded with 11443 on 2 separate lines. Is this accurate? For some reason I was thinking you added up the total area of all the areas and used one code based on the size when it is the same anatomical area. But maybe I'm remembering something incorrectly. This is not something I code every day since I am auditing an account.

 

[csperoni]

Sounds like you are likely confusing excision coding rules with repair coding rules. And you are certainly not the first person to do so.
Excisions are coded individually, based on the size of the excision, location, and benign vs malignant.
Repair (sutures) are grouped by the complexity (simple, intermediate, complex) and each body area.
So 2 benign excisions on the face, excision size #1 2.2, size #2 2.5cm is coded as 11443 x2.
2 simple repairs on the face, (same #1 is 2.2 and #2 is 2.5) is coded as a 4.7cm simple repair on face (12013).