For our Dermatology office we always do a biopsy first, those are coded as benign since we must only code to the level of specificity and the reimbursement is the same regardless of diag. for the biopsy. The surgical removal is always set for a later time, allowing for an accurate diagnosis to be used. The only exception to this is in the case of a suspected malignant melanoma, in which case we generally will remove immediately and just hold that bill until the pathology is returned.
