Reader Questions: Avoid Losing $20 Per Excision

Article Overview

This article addresses a reader question about excision coding for lesions removed from the back and neck. It explains the relationship between pathology reports, operative documentation, lesion size measurement, and CPT excision code selection, with emphasis on why the physician’s record is needed for sizing and how pathology supports the final benign-versus-malignant category. The piece is aimed at coders and billing staff who work with skin lesion excisions and want to avoid undercoding due to incomplete documentation.