AHA Coding Clinic® for HCPCS - 2010 Issue 4; ASK the EDITOR

Breast reconstruction utilizing harvested fat

A post breast reconstruction/revision was performed using harvested fat. The patient has a history of breast cancer. According to the operative report fat was suctioned out and not harvested through an incision. Following this the fat was then injected into the breast. We assigned CPT 11950, Subcutaneous injection of filling material (eg, collagen; 1 cc or less, for the injection of autologous fat, but didn't have a CPT code for the harvesting, which I think should be an unlisted CPT code. Some of the coders reported this procedure with CPT code 19380, Revision of reconstructed breast, and now they decided that CPT code 20926 is a much better code. Would CPT 20926 be a more appropriate code because it requires the fat graft to be removed by incision? This is becoming a common type procedure, and we need help in determining how to assign the CPT code correctly. ...

To read the full article, sign in and subscribe to the AHA Coding Clinic® for HCPCS.

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