Updated Coding Curbs Complex Repair Billing by Mohs Surgeons
Complex repairs billed by Mohs surgeons decreased significantly from 2019 to 2021 in the wake of new coding guidelines, according to a national Medicare analysis. Publishing in Dermatologic Surgery, Christian Gronbeck, MD, of the University of Connecticut, Farmington, and colleagues compared the volume of intermediate and complex skin repairs performed by Mohs micrographic surgeons before and after the 2020 guidelines. The study included 2,764 Mohs micrographic surgeons (MMSs) who performed a total of 629,532 intermediate and complex repairs in 2021. Over the study period, the proportion of complex repairs performed by MMSs decreased from 63.2% to 75.2% (P < 0.0001). The updated coding provided more differentiation guidance between complex and intermediate repairs on the degree of undermining, the exposure of named subcutaneous structures, and the involvement of free margins. Complex repair coding decreased across all subgroups of MMSs, but the greatest decreases were among surgeons in