CPT Knowledgebase - Jan 6, 2023

If the destruction of a vascular lesion, such as an angiokeratoma of 10 to 50 cm in size, is performed with electrocautery, what code is appropriate to report? Surgical destruction is defined in the CPT code set (CPT 2023, p 74) as "part of a surgical procedure and different methods of destruction are not ordinarily listed separately unless the technique substantially alters the standard management of a problem or condition." CPT code 17107 is described as "destruction of cutaneous vascular proliferative lesions (eg, laser technique); 10.0-50.0 sq cm." However, code 17110 lists multiple methods of destruction (eg, laser surgery, electrosurgery, cryosurgery, chemosurgery, surgical curettement) for benign lesions. Therefore, it is unclear if code 17107 is limited to laser technique considering the descriptor states "eg," which means "for example." This suggests that other types of destruction, such as electrocautery, are acceptable and included, but unlike code 17110, which lists a variety of destruction methods, code 17107 only lists laser.

To view the Official AMA answer and 1000s more like this:

CPT® Knowledge Base is a compendium of real life coding questions asked by the coding community and answered by CPT® coding experts.

Over 2900 questions and authoritative answers from the CPT® professionals at the AMA. Get specific answers to challenging coding questions, and search the knowledge base of others' real world questions.

Access to this feature is available in the following products:
  • AMA's CPT® Advanced Coding Pack

demo
request yours today
 subscribe
start today
 newsletter
free subscription

Thank you for choosing Find-A-Code, please Sign In to remove ads.