Debridement Code Or An Active Wound Care Code

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Debridement code or an active wound care code? Rid all confusions now


Confused between a debridement code or an active wound care code? Well, with CPT 2011 revised codes and guidelines, you need not be. As per this year's revised coding for debridement and wound care reflect CMS's continued concern with perceived billing abuses.


Based on last year's and older CPT codes, you had to think about a lot of factors while selecting between debridement and active wound care codes. But that's passé now. Depth is the only documentation item you need to determine the proper code.


Active wound care has a 0-day global period and is used for treating wounds of the skin, dermis, or epidermis. For deeper wound care, use the proper debridement codes from CPT's integumentary surgery section. This year's CPT also deletes the following two debridement codes that refer only to dermis or epidermis: 11040, 11041.


Also, there's a new parenthetical note under the deleted codes that reads "For debridement of skin, i.e., epidermis and/or dermis only, see 97597, 97598."

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... br /> CPT 2011 also changes the debridement code definitions to list first the deepest level involved in the debridement procedure, and add a statement that the procedure also includes all layers that are more superficial. For example earlier, 11042 used to read "skin and subcutaneous tissue; however this year it reads "subcutaneous tissue (includes epidermis and dermis, if performed)."


The just-in and revised codes now make it possible for you to capture work for debridement services on areas greater than 20 sq. cm. To get a better understanding of the codes, take a look at these codes: 11042 (Revised), # +11045 (New), 11043 (Revised), # +11046 (New), 11044 (Revised), # +11047 (New).


This year's CPT wound care revision involves "mainly rewording to make clear how active wound care is separate from integumentary wound care. The code changes also allow you to capture larger areas: 97597 (Revised), + 97958 (Revised)


CPT this year includes guidelines that indicate two requirements for active wound care management.


For further updates on this and for other specialty-specific articles to assist your general surgery coding, sign up for a good coding resource like Coding Institute.