# Aftercare versus Follow-up codes



## cswaney (Jul 18, 2011)

If a patient is status post organ transplant and comes in to have bloodwork done every so many months to check their levels what diagnosis code would you use as the principal diagnosis? The patient is not having any problems and they come in stricly for bloodwork only. Would you use the aftercare code V58.44 as the principal diangois, or would you use the follow-up code V67.09 as the principal diagnosis. I have some confusion on this matter and would appreciate some input from some other coders. What do you guys think?


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## btadlock1 (Jul 18, 2011)

cswaney said:


> If a patient is status post organ transplant and comes in to have bloodwork done every so many months to check their levels what diagnosis code would you use as the principal diagnosis? The patient is not having any problems and they come in stricly for bloodwork only. Would you use the aftercare code V58.44 as the principal diangois, or would you use the follow-up code V67.09 as the principal diagnosis. I have some confusion on this matter and would appreciate some input from some other coders. What do you guys think?



Aftercare = they're getting a check-up while still receiving treatment for a problem that's going away/in the process of healing.

Follow-Up = they're getting a check-up after the problem has been completely eradicated. 

(In a nutshell) There are a lot of threads on this issue - I've personally responded to at least 3 or 4 of them - it's a confusing issue. Hope that helps!


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## btadlock1 (Jul 18, 2011)

And to answer your question, that sounds like Follow-up to me.


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## wtnnicole14 (Jul 20, 2011)

Followup sounds correct if the problem has been resolved and this is just routine bloodwork to check status.


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## LoveCoding (Nov 27, 2012)

*Therapeutic drug monitoring after transplant*

We use V58.83 (therapeutic drug monitoring); V58.69 (long term use of medication); and then the V code for what they had transplanted. (example V42.0 kidney transplanted).

After a transplant, the patient is taking medications which must be continually monitored.


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