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CPT 10140: Incision and Drainage of Hematoma, Seroma, or Fluid Collection
CPT code 10140 represents an incision and drainage procedure for hematomas, seromas, or other fluid collections in soft tissue. The code covers the act of incising the collection and bluntly penetrating it to permit evacuation of accumulated fluid. This procedure is commonly performed across ambulatory surgery centers, emergency departments, outpatient clinics, and office-based settings and is relevant to surgical, dermatologic, and plastic surgery practices.
Key payers in the national landscape include Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna Health, UnitedHealthcare, and Medicare. Readers will find an overview of clinical context for use of the code, common diagnostic indications, and related procedure codes. The publication summarizes typical sites of service and the clinical scenarios where 10140 is applied, and it highlights how the code relates to nearby CPT codes for incision and drainage of localized collections.
This resource is intended to provide clinicians, billing staff, and policy analysts with concise guidance on the clinical scope of CPT code 10140, common use cases, and where it sits within procedural coding for soft-tissue fluid evacuation. Data not available in the input includes detailed payer-specific reimbursement rates and utilization benchmarks.
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Billing Code Overview
CPT code 10140 describes the surgical procedure in which a provider makes an incision into a hematoma, seroma, or other fluid collection and bluntly penetrates it to allow evacuation of the fluid. This procedure is typically categorized as an incision and drainage service.
Service type: Surgical incision and drainage
Typical site of service: Procedure performed in an ambulatory surgery center, outpatient clinic, emergency department, or office-based procedure room
National Reimbursement Benchmarks
Medicare's national mean of $180.30 sits well below BUCA's average commercial mean of $1,216.00, indicating that commercial arrangements captured by BUCA pay substantially more than the Medicare baseline for CPT 10140. The gap between those two anchors — about $1,035.70 — highlights a sizable divergence between public program reimbursement and this segment of commercial pricing.
Dispersion measured as the interquartile difference (P75 minus P25) varies notably across payers. Blue Cross Blue Shield shows a relatively tight spread of $632.70, while Aetna's IQR is $100.00. UnitedHealth Group and Cigna have wider dispersion at $159.10 and $158.40 respectively. BUCA's IQR is $419.80 and Medicare's IQR is $18.00, making Medicare the tightest and Blue Cross Blue Shield among the widest in absolute dollar spread.