# External cause for a car accident w/o injury



## chasgiv4 (Jan 30, 2017)

Unique on here I believe.

A patient came in because they were in a car accident but presented no pain or injuries.  The patient simply wanted a check up and I know that external causes can't be used as the primary DX or the claim will be rejected.

We used an office visit code and an external cause code but rejected obviously.  Anybody know what should be used?

Thanks in advance.


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## mitchellde (Jan 30, 2017)

chasgiv4 said:


> Unique on here I believe.
> 
> A patient came in because they were in a car accident but presented no pain or injuries.  The patient simply wanted a check up and I know that external causes can't be used as the primary DX or the claim will be rejected.
> 
> ...



That is correct, external cause codes can never be used as a first listed code.  When your patient has no symptoms or definitive diagnosis you should alsways consider a Z code is probably the best option for a first listed code.  For transport accident with no findings you would look at the Z04.1 as your first listed code with the external cause secondary.


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## chasgiv4 (Jan 31, 2017)

WOW, SUPER HELPFUL!!!! 

That's exactly what I was looking for.  Thank you for your time!  I feel it may have been obvious but I didn't know where to look for the code.


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