Wiki TAllen

Create Wiki
K

kingbite

Guest
Messages
4
Best answers
0
I am new to dermatology and I need some help with procedure codes 17311,17312,17313,
17314 and 17315. This is my question:
Patient comes into the office we do the following Mohs surgery: head, neck,hands and feet area.
1st stage-7
2nd stage-12
3rd stage-10
4th satge-5
5th stage-6
How would you bill it? I am being told several different ways and I want to be sure that I understand the correct way to bill it.
 
I think a little clairification of what was done is in order. I'm not sure what you meant by:

"1st stage-7
2nd stage-12
3rd stage-10
4th satge-5
5th stage-6"

Did your physician treat 7 lesions on the same patient? Mohs is pretty straightforward. Example: A patient comes in with a BCC on the nose. Physician does 3 stages and a 5.0 cm complex closure. You would bill as follows:
17311
17312 x 2
13151

If you have further questions feel free to message me or post an op note.
 
tallen

a patient has 3 stages of Mohs performed on a lesion right forehead.
1st stage-excised tissue cut into 10 sections
2nd stage- 14 sections were excised
3rd stage- 16 sections were excised
tumor cells were identified on permanent sectioning and the tumor eradication was considered incomplete after a total of 3 stages of surgery in which mulitple microscopic
slides of 40 sections had been examined.

Would it be billed as follows
17311- 1 units
17312- 3 units
17315- would be billed separately 20 times with a 76 modifier
 
3 stages of Mohs on the forehead would be billed as follows:

17311- 1unit
17312- 2 units

Remember the 17312 is each ADDITIONAL stage after the first. So by billing 17312 x 3, you're saying that the patient had a TOTAL of 4 stages of Mohs.

In your example, you would bill 17315- 25 units

You said that the first stage was cut into 10 sections. The 17311 code Includes the first 5 tissue blocks, so for the first stage you have 5 extra blocks you can bill
2nd stage was cut into 14 sections.. Again the first 5 were included, leaving you with 9 extra. 3rd stage was cut into 16 sections. The first 5 were included, leaving you with 11.
So 5+9+11= 25
 
JessH2618

Thanks for your help in this .The way you stated it was the way that I had said but when you have people telling you that it is not correct you start questioning yourself, thanks again for your help.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top