tci General Surgery Coding Alert - 2007 Issue 4

YOU BE THE CODER: What Separates Superficial From Deep?

Question: How should I determine when to use 20200 (superficial muscle biopsy) rather than 20205 (deep muscle biopsy)? Several of our surgeons perform muscle biopsy, usually of the deltoid or quadriceps muscle, which are identified as superficial anterior muscles. Does this mean we must use the superficial code? Or is the biopsy's depth, as opposed to the muscle's location, the determining factor? Illinois SubscriberAnswer: In this case, -superficial- vs. -deep- is a product of distance from the surface (for instance, skin is superficial, bone is deep), rather than a description of the muscle (in other words, just because the...

To read the full article, sign in and subscribe to tci General Surgery Coding Alert.


Leverage vital, to-the-point monthly guidance to boost your reporting accuracy and your coding know-how. We make it convenient for your team to stay informed, compliant, and profitable with a subscription to TCI’s General Surgery Coding Alert.

  • Current newsletters added each month
  • Fully searchable archives - over 2100 articles
  • ALL years/issues back to 1999 organized by year and issue
  • Codes mentioned in articles are linked to Code Information pages
  • Code Information pages link back to related articles
Access to this feature is available in the following products:
  • tci General Surgery Coding Alert +Archives

demo
request yours today
 subscribe
start today
 newsletter
free subscription

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