By Sherry Sparham, CPC-D--Sometimes, there are wrinkles in the way payers process claims for medical billing of new procedures. For instance, in the May, 2011, BCBS Record, there is notice of a New Procedure to Bill For Cryotherapy performed in the office. The new procedure code is 17340.  Some of you may remember this procedure was used a while back to bill Medicare for cryotherapy of acne. At present, Medicare no longer covers this procedure, but BCBSMI does cover this code effective 08/01/2011. BCBSMI is still paying for procedure 10040, as well, but there are changes to descriptions for each procedure.

If you look in your 2012 CPT Book, the description for 17340 states Cryotherapy (CO2, Slush, Liquid N2) for acne.

The description for 10040 states, Acne Surgery (eg, Marsupialization, opening or removal of multiple milia, comedones, cysts, pustules).

Note that if you are performing only cryosurgery for acne, the correct code would be 17340, but if you are performing any procedures in the description for 10040, this would be your procedure to bill.

Please be aware that the UAW Retiree Benefit Trust is excluded from this policy update, so you would still need to bill 10040 for this group.

I have been working with BCBSMI because we are receiving denials for procedure 17340, stating that it is not a payable diagnosis when we are billing 706.1 (Acne). BCBSMI tells me that their system had not been updated to accept these new codes but they are presently working on this issue. There is no estimated time on the fix. BCBSMI is expected to keep me informed on progress, and I will let everyone know when the fix is complete.

Sherry Sparham is a Certified Professional Coder in Dermatology, and has been billing and coding dermatology for over 15 of her 40 years as a medical biller and coder.  She can be reached at 248-932-2607.