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Revised Moh’s Surgery Guidelines


Revised Moh’s Surgery (MMS-  Mohs Micrographic Surgery) Guidelines:

The mentioned below updates are effective from dates of service on and after Sept. 1, 2019.

According to CMS, Mohs surgery should only be performed by a “doctor of medicine (MD) or doctor of osteopathic medicine (DO)” who is specifically trained and highly skilled in Mohs techniques and pathologic identification

In order to maintain the quality of care and services delivered to our members, UnitedHealthcare will only reimburse Mohs surgery to an MD or DO who is specifically trained in both dermatology and pathology

If either the removal of the tumor or the pathology is delegated to another physician or other qualified health care professional, not under the same tax ID number, the Mohs code will be denied.

CMS guidance indicates that pathology examination of the tissue specimen is an inclusive component of Mohs and should not be reported separately.

Accordingly, UnitedHealthcare will deny the pathology examination, if separately reported.

Source: New Guidelines for Mohs Surgery


Coding Ahead

Mohs, repairs, multiple code combo denials

I’m new to Derm and I’m coming across a lot of denial issues. Examples below. Feedback appreciated!

13132-59 Claim paid
11200 Charge denied
Shouldn’t both claims pay seeing that the 59 was added for the NCCI edit?

17311-79
17311-79-59 (BSC left mid-jawline and BSC left lateral jawline//2 separate dx codes)
17312
14301-79
14302-79
Should 2 units of 17311 be billed instead of separate line items? 14302 and 17312 are the only charges that paid. How can the add-on be paid and not the parent code? This is GA Medicare.

21235 billed with 14061. Graft pays, flap denied.

Medical Billing and Coding Forum

Additional Excisions during same DOS for MOHS

For those of you who work in dermatology with a provider who performs MOHS surgeries, I have a question. How common or uncommon is it for a patient who is having a MOHS procedure to also have other lesions excised during the same DOS. The other lesions excised would be non-Mohs excision, i.e. CPT 11401-11406, 11600-11606, etc.

Medical Billing and Coding Forum

Multiple Mohs procedures making one defect

When my Mohs surgeon has side by side skin cancers and are all being treated with Mohs as separate lesions, when the procedure is done it has created one defect site. If you are treating that wound site with for example with skin substitute used for healing,can you measure the entire site as one defect? Almost impossible to differentiate each individual defect since the margins were so close they overlapped.

Shardel

Medical Billing and Coding Forum

Mohs AUC Score

Ok….So I am very aware of what the AUC score is and how it is utilized in the Mohs/Dermatology world. My only concern/question is, why there are only a few Providers who actually "implement" this guideline when recommending Mohs as treatment plan (such as my 8 Providers)?? It is NOT recognized from a billing standpoint and holds NO leverage on appeals, chart reviews, audits or medically necessary documentation for Insurance payments. But yet, few Providers refuse to do Mohs on "yellow and red zones" and almost the rest of my County Mohs Providers will perform Mohs for any size, any location and any biopsy proven diagnosis (even In Situ cases that are superficial) without hesitation. Just wanted to get some thoughts from anyone willing to share. Thanks in advance!!

**I am also in Florida, if location matters :)

Medical Billing and Coding Forum

Repair after Mohs

Can you help point me in the right direction for codding this OP Note. This is a procedure after Mohs. Thanks in advance…

Patient returned following the Mohs excision to the nasal tip and forehead flap reconstruction. Unfortunately the patient has denuded bone in the middle of his forehead donor site. It measures about 1.5x 3 cm. Today I took him to the operating room in the office and cleaned the area thoroughly and under local anesthetic of 1% Xylocaine and 1:100,000 parts epinephrine I mobilized flaps medially and laterally and sutured them together with spanning sutures of 2-0 Prolene. The edges of the wound did not completely come together but the size of the defect was reduced by about 50%. The patient will continue to dress the area wet-to-dry in the hope of encouraging granulation tissue to creep across the wound. If not we can do another closure once the tissue have relaxed.

The patient is now due to have a cartilage grafting to the nasal tip as well as thinning of the nasal tip flap. This should be done as a day case under general anesthetic. The donor site of the grafts will be either the ear cartilage or the rib cartilage so he should be consented for both and he should be booked for 3 hours.

Thank You for your help!!!

Medical Billing and Coding Forum

Mohs surgeon billing under the general dermatologist’s NPI

I have always been under the impression that one doctor cannot bill under another doctor’s NPI except under a true Locum Tenens situation. But a friend who works in another derm practice says that her doctor brings in a Mohs surgeon once a week and bills insurance under his own name for the Mohs surgeon’s work. When my friend told him he is not allowed to do this, he replied that he has checked into this and found that it is permitted.

Is there something I don’t know here, or is he committing fraud?

Medical Billing and Coding Forum