July 22, 2021 Question: My physician used liquid nitrogen to destroy a benign lesion on the eyelid margin. Can I use CPT code 67850 when using liquid nitrogen to destroy a lesion on the eyelid? Answer: The CPT definition for this code specifies lid margin. So if the lesion is on the margin, the code...
July 8, 2021 Question: We have been providing Telehealth visits using audio and visual means to many of our patients during the Covid-19 pandemic. Can we bill telehealth visits by time alone? Answer: For Medicare claims, telehealth visits can now be billed according to medical decision-making (MDM) or time, so yes, as long as the...
June 24, 2021 Question: I am a Dermatologist. I have a patient who was referred to my office who has dementia and was unable to provide her medical history. The patient’s granddaughter was able to provide the patient’s medical history to me as the patient was confused and unable to provide this information. Is there...
June 10, 2021 Question: If I use time to select my E/M service in the office, can I just document the total time? Answer: No, you must document the actual time along with the activities performed. According to the AMA, list the total time and describe what activities were done. “I spent 45 minutes caring...
May 27, 2021 Question: In the new guidelines, how does Time affect billing for a teaching physician’s E/M service when the resident spends a great deal of time with the patient? Answer: Good question! Only the time of teaching physician would “count” in the scenario you describe. The new guidelines say that the time of...
May 13, 2021 Question: My physician and I are in a disagreement regarding a malignant lesion excision performed with an ATT. She performed a malignant lesion excision along with the ATT which is 7cm on the arm. She wants to code both the excision of the malignant lesion and ATT. I think we should only...
April 29, 2021 Question: I work in a Dermatology practice and we see just a few Medicare patients. The physician believes the revised 2021 E/M guidelines will not impact our office practice because of our low Medicare volume. Is this correct? Answer: We are so happy you asked this question. This is not correct, and...
April 15, 2021 Question: If a physician removes skin tags by shaving can we report 11300? Answer: If you are removing skin tags you would report 11200 (Removal of skin tags, multiple fibrocutaneous tags, any area; up to and including 15 lesions) If more than15 skin tags are removed you would also report the add-on...
April 1, 2021 Question: I excised an EIC lesion on the chest. I coded this as D48.5 but my coder says this is the wrong diagnosis code. What is the correct diagnosis code? Answer: ICD-10-CM code D48.5 (Neoplasm of uncertain behavior of skin) is incorrect as you have stated the patient has an EIC (epidermal...
March 18, 2021 Question: A 74-year-old male Medicare patient came into our office and was treated for two malignant lesions, one in the mucosa of the upper lip and a second in the mucosa of the lower lip. What diagnosis code do I use? Answer: You would use two codes; ICD-10-CM C00.3 (Malignant neoplasm of...
