LCD/NCD Portal

NCD140.5

 

LASER PROCEDURES

 

 

Effective Date of this Version

• 5/1/1997

 

Benefit Category

• Physicians' Services.

• Note: This may not be an exhaustive list of all applicable Medicare benefit categories for this item or service.

 

Indications and Limitations of Coverage

• Medicare recognizes the use of lasers for many medical indications.

o Procedures performed with lasers are sometimes used in place of more conventional techniques.

o In the absence of a specific noncoverage instruction, and where a laser has been approved for marketing by the Food and Drug Administration, contractor discretion may be used to determine whether a procedure performed with a laser is reasonable and necessary and, therefore, covered.

• The determination of coverage for a procedure performed using a laser is made on the basis that the use of lasers to alter, revise, or destroy tissue is a surgical procedure.

o Therefore, coverage of laser procedures is restricted to practitioners with training in the surgical management of the disease or condition being treated.

 

 

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