Wiki Tatoo removal question

[smartcoder]

Patient is having allergic reaction to the tatoo and wants it to be excised. I am assuming that it would be covered but what is appropriate icd-9 for tatoo? will it be considered as foreign body of benign lesion?? Please help.

 

[gkaufman]

In the index of my ICD-9 code book, tattoo is listed as 709.9

 

[JessH2618]

709.09 is what I came up with.

Is this a tattoo that they had for medical reasons such as radiation tattoos? Or is this they went to tattoo shop and had ink placed on their body for cosmetic reasons? If it was a cosmetic tattoo, I would check with the insurance carrier prior to doing any procedure to make sure it would be considered medically necessary under the terms of your contract. Yes the patient is having a reaction, but they wouldn't be having that reaction if they wouldn't have done something that was Cosmetic to begin with. In addition to checking with the insurance carrier, I would still have the patient sign a statement of financial responsibility, making sure that they are aware that because the procedure is related to a tattoo the insurance company may decide after the fact that it is a cosmetic procedure and not pay for it, in which case they can be held responsible.