tci General Surgery Coding Alert - 2008 Issue 11

Reader Questions: Biopsy Can Be Separate From Mastectomy

Question: If the surgeon performs a breast biopsy, and if frozen section comes back positive, also performs a mastectomy, can you bill for both procedures? If so, will I need modifiers? Virginia Subscriber Answer: You can report both the biopsy and mastectomy,as long as the results of the biopsy prompted the mastectomy (for instance, if biopsy shows malignancy). Many biopsy codes are bundled with lumpectomy and mastectomy codes in the national Correct Coding Initiative (CCI). But this does not mean they cannot be billed together: The CCI edits do not apply when the biopsy is diagnostic (that is...

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.