December 30, 2021 Question: I heard that a medical assistant who enters the patient’s medications into the electronic health record must be certified. Is this true? Answer: Actually, Medicare requires the MA to be certified to perform order entry. They do not have to be certified to enter patient information such as vital signs or...
December 16, 2021 Question: I’ve been dictating CPT and ICD-10-CM codes in my procedure note so that my coder knows what to bill. Recently, we had an insurance company call us out because the codes we billed were not the same as the codes in the procedure note. Now I am not sure what to...
December 2, 2021 Question: How do we code for PDT therapy for treating cutaneous lesions? Answer: CPT codes 96567, 96573, and 96574 are used to report nonsurgical treatment of cutaneous lesions using PDT (i.e., external application of light to destroy premalignant lesions of the skin and adjacent mucosa by activation of photosensitizing drug). These codes...
November 11, 2021 Question: We are going to be doing laser therapy for hypertrophic burn scars. From my understanding we will be using fractional ablative CO2 laser therapy. Answer: There are 2 category III codes to report this procedure, 0479T and 0480T. CPT code 0479T is reported for the first 100 cm2 or part thereof,...
October 28, 2021 Question: One of our physicians made excised a cyst measuring 1.3cm on the arm. She removed all of the contents by piece meal. Is this considered a benign lesion excision? What code would I use? Answer: Yes, this would be considered a benign lesion excision as long as a full thickness incision...
October 14, 2021 Question: My Mohs surgeon was performing Mohs surgery on the scalp and completed stage 1 and 2 but cancer was still evident in the margins. The patient needed a third stage but could not tolerate the third stage on the same date. The patient came back the next day and the physician...
September 30, 2021 Question: I did several steroid injections on the patient’s palm for psoriasis. I am not sure what CPT code to use. Can you provide me with the correct code? My coder thinks I would use an unlisted code. Answer: The correct CPT code to use is 11900 up to 7 lesions and...
September 16, 2021 Question: We have recently begun treating our psoriasis patients using XTRAC laser therapy. I have looked extensively and cannot find a CPT code for this procedure. Can you help me? Answer: The XTRAC excimer laser is reimbursed by most payors for mild to moderate plaque psoriasis by most major insurance carriers. Some...
September 2, 2021 Question: I am new to Dermatology coding and need some help. My physician saw a patient with psoriasis and the documentation says she performed light therapy on the palm of the right hand and left forearm. My physician told me to report 96900 for ultraviolet light therapy. My question is can I...
August 19, 2021 Question: I am trying to code a repair. My physician performed one stage of Mohs surgery and the documentation says he did a “purse string repair” How would I code this? Answer: Usually a purse string repair is a simple repair report using a code from 12001-12018. But look carefully at the...
