# CPT 97597

> Medicare paid $90.82 for CPT 97597 in the office (non-facility) setting and $24.51 in a facility under the Q2 2019 Physician Fee Schedule, effective April 2019. These are the national allowed amounts before the ~2% sequestration cut and before locality (GPCI) adjustment. This price has been unchanged since Q1 2019, when it increased 6.4%.

## What it is

Careful removal of dead tissue, slough, and debris from the surface of an open wound so that healthy tissue underneath can heal. The clinician works with scissors, forceps, a scalpel, or a high-pressure water jet, taking only non-viable tissue and leaving living tissue intact — that selectivity is what distinguishes it from surgical debridement, which cuts into healthy tissue down to muscle or bone. The session also takes in assessing the wound, applying topical treatment, and teaching the patient how to care for it between visits. This code covers the first band of total wound surface area; larger areas are picked up by a companion code.

## Selected release

- Release: Q2 2019 (2019 B)
- Effective: April 1 – June 30, 2019
- Status indicator: A
- Office (non-facility) national allowed amount: $90.82
- Facility national allowed amount: $24.51
- Sequestration: not applied

## RVUs and formula

- Work RVU: 0.51
- Office (non-facility) practice expense RVU: 1.99
- Facility practice expense RVU: 0.15
- Malpractice RVU: 0.02
- Conversion factor: 36.0391
- Formula: `(work_rvu × work_gpci + pe_rvu × pe_gpci + mp_rvu × mp_gpci) × conversion_factor`

## Source and citation

- Source: Physician relative value file (Q2 2019)
- CMS file: https://www.cms.gov/medicare/medicare-fee-for-service-payment/physicianfeesched/downloads/rvu19b.zip
- Parsed file: PPRRVU19_APR.csv, row 16,715
- Canonical page: https://localishealth.com/cpt/97597/2019/A
- Release-specific citation URL: https://localishealth.com/cpt/97597/2019/B
- Last significant update: 2026-08-04T03:08:53+00:00