Multiple Services Reductions

I had a patient come in for a punch biopsy in his neck, which turned out to be a full excision. He had the following;
Assessment:
1. Nevus, pigmented, of skin of neck - 216.4 (Primary)
2. Nevus, pigmented, of skin of cheek - 216.3
3. Actinic Keratosis - 702.0
We billed as 11421-RT; 11440-59LT; 17000-59
c/o mole Nevus posterior neck, 0.5cm round symmetrical black, slightly raised
Nevus R bicep 0.75cm round symmetrical light brown
Nevus on L jaw 0.25cm, irregular borders, flat

The insurance company paid on all of these, but reduced the 11440-59LT and the 17000-59
I don't believe this should have reductions on it, given that these were separate issues in separate areas of the skin. Can anyone advise if this would seem appropriate?
Thanks, Melanie

Multiple service reductions

The insurance companies figure: you didn't have to do the pre and post work twice, and so they reduce the payment for the second and subsequent services. The CMS Claims Processing Manual instructs carriers to do that, as well.

There is a great article by Seth Canterbury on this topic:

http://codapedia.com/article_484_Payers-Multiple-Surgery-Discount-Policies.cfm

If the link doesn't "click" for you, type the word Seth in the search box to find the article he wrote, or type discount and it will come up.