tci General Surgery Coding Alert - 2007 Issue 1

READER QUESTION: Watch Mastectomy/Lymph Excision Unbundle

Question: When the surgeon removes lymph nodes during a partial mastectomy, may we report the mastectomy using 19160 and the lymph excision separately using 38745?Kentucky SubscriberAnswer: Often, with partial mastectomy, the surgeon will perform an axillary lymphadenectomy to remove the lymph nodes between the pectoralis major and the pectoralis minor muscles. The surgeon may also remove the nodes in the axilla through a separate incision at the same time.When this occurs, you should not report the mastectomy and lymphadenectomy (38745, Axillary lymphadenectomy; complete) separately. Instead, you should use a single, combined code to report the work of...

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