Don’t get confused between Excision and Mastectomy
It could be easy to get confused between Excision and Mastectomy, especially when deciding between 19120 Excision of cyst, fibroadenoma, or other benign or malignant tumor, aberrant breast tissue, duct lesion, nipple or areolar lesion (except 19300), open, male or female, 1 or more lesions and 19301 Mastectomy, partial Eg: Lumpectomy, Tylectomy, Quadrantectomy, Segmentectomy, one must search the documentation to determine whether a margin of health tissue was removed, along with the breast mass.
If the surgeon removes only the mass, with little or no margin, then look at code 19120.
Report one unit of 19120, per incision (not per mass removed).
CPT(R) Assistant (March 2005) instructs:
Code 19120 should be reported for each of the separate excised areas since it includes one or more lesions through the same incision. However, if excisions are performed on different areas of the breast through separate incision sites, code 19120 should be reported for each incised area. Modifier 59 [Distinct Procedural Service] should be appended to the second procedure code.
Report 19300 [Mastectomy for gynecomastia]? (CPT(R) Assistant, March 2014) for more extensive resection performed for gynecomastia [benign enlargement of breast tissue].
Code 19300 for male patients, only, ?as gynecomastia is a male condition? (CPT(R) Assistant, Feb. 2007).
19301 code should be considered when the surgeon removes a breast lesion with a margin of healthy tissue.
CPT Assistant (Feb. 2007) instructs:
Partial mastectomy procedures describe open excisions of breast tissue and include specific attention to adequate surgical margins surrounding the breast mass or lesion. In a partial mastectomy, a larger amount of breast tissue and some skin are removed with the tumor. This also includes removal of the lining over chest muscles below the tumor. This surgery is usually performed for stage 1 and 2 tumors. This code is reported also for the performance of a lumpectomy where the tumor and a small amount of surrounding tissue are removed.
In these cases, the mass is suspected or known to be malignant, and the margin of health tissue is removed to ensure that the entire malignancy has been excised.