Cardiology Coding Alert

To avoid taking up your cardiologist's valuable time, you've got to be able to determine if documentation is sufficient to point you to a specific hypertension code.

See if you make the grade with these hypertension true/false answers.

If your cardiologist is in the habit of merely writing "hypertension" on the patient's record, you should point this problem out to him.

Vital: The real key to correct coding for hypertension lies with physician documentation, and you must educate your cardiologists to tell you explicitly what type of hypertension they're treating, says Kristy F. Lane, CCP-P, coding practice specialist at the Heart and Vascular Group in Johnson City, Tenn. In other words, cardiologists need to state the details of a patient's hypertension in the medical record.

Coding for hypertension really comes down to documentation. Often, cardiologists will simply write "hypertension" in the diagnosis portion of their notes, which leads you to nothing but 401.9 (Essential hypertension; unspecified), says Phyllis Frazier, SCP-CA, billing supervisor for Scranton Heart Institute PC in Clarks Summit, Penn. "Most insurance carriers won't accept an unspecified code any longer," Lane says.

Action: Explain to your cardiologists that adequate information for medical purposes isn't always adequate for coding purposes. They need to indicate whether a patient's hypertension is malignant or benign and also define how any other manifestations are related to the hypertension. "You've got a multitude of specific hypertension codes to choose from," Lane says.

For example, the cardiologist should not just document hypertension and renal disease, but should indicate if the patient's hypertension is causing renal disease or if the renal disease is causing hypertension.

When you don't know whether the hypertension is malignant or benign, you shouldn't automatically assume your cardiologist means benign.

Rule of thumb: "Never assume anything in coding," Lane says.

Heads up: The hypertension table in the ICD-9 manual's index lists three possible categories into which hypertension may fall: Malignant, benign and unspecified. The fourth digit of the hypertension code you report will differ depending on which category you choose. For instance, you'll report 401.0 for malignant essential hypertension, 401.1 for benign essential hypertension, and 401.9 for unspecified.

Clues: "A patient has malignant hypertension when he has a recent significant increase over baseline blood pressure that is associated with target organ damage. There is usually vascular damage on funduscopic examination, such as flame-shaped hemorrhages or soft exudates," says Jerome Williams Jr., MD, FACC, a cardiologist with Mid Carolina Cardiology in Charlotte, N.C. To diagnose malignant hypertension, papilledema must be present, Williams says. Up to 1 percent of patients with benign hypertension may develop malignant hypertension -- meaning malignant hypertension can be life-threatening and may cause a stroke but is much less common than benign hypertension.

Common assumption: Because benign hypertension is more common, physicians often assume they are indicating benign hypertension when they simply write "hypertension." But if the documentation doesn't specifically state "benign" or "malignant," the only accurate choice you have is to report an unspecified code, which insurance carriers may not accept.

Identifying whether the hypertension is benign or malignant won't tell your payers the whole story. You've also got to show whether the hypertension is primary or secondary to a patient's condition.

Key: When documenting, your cardiologist must learn to link the patient's hypertension to any other manifestations. For instance, "you can code hypertension specific as: with or without heart failure, hypertensive chronic kidney disease, a hypertensive heart and chronic kidney disease," Lane says. Impact: You have to discern the manifestations properly to assign the correct code.

If the patient's hypertension is primary (also known as "essential hypertension," Williams says), meaning that another condition is not causing the hypertension, you need to list the hypertension code first. Then list any manifestations as secondary diagnoses.

Keep in mind: Patients sometimes have hypertension with another condition, such as renal disease or renal artery stenosis, and one code includes both conditions. For instance, 403.xx indicates hypertensive renal disease, and 404.xx indicates hypertensive heart and renal disease.

Example 1: If your cardiologist documents a patient with benign hypertensive renal disease with renal failure, you would report 403.11 (Hypertensive chronic kidney disease; benign; with chronic kidney disease). You need only this one code to describe the patient's entire condition.

Example 2: If your cardiologist treats a patient with benign hypertensive heart disease with heart failure, you would report 402.11 (Hypertensive heart disease; benign; with heart failure). This code indicates the patient's entire hypertensive status. Note: You would also need to report an additional code to specify the type of heart failure, such as 428.0 (Congestive heart failure, unspecified).

Red flag: If your cardiologist documents that the patient has heart disease due to hypertension, he should also indicate whether the disease is with or without heart failure. "This distinction will help the coder select the best code in the 402 or 404 categories," Lane says. And if the patient has heart failure, remember to assign a separate code to indicate the type of heart failure.

Don't Overlook Secondary Hypertension

A patient has secondary hypertension if the hypertension is "due to" or caused by another condition. ICD-9 defines secondary hypertension as "high arterial blood pressure due to or with a variety of primary diseases, such as renal disorders, CNS disorders, endocrine and vascular diseases."

For secondary hypertension, you should report the causal condition as the primary diagnosis and the hypertension as secondary. For example, if a patient has primary aldosteronism that is causing benign hypertension, you might report 255.10 (Primary aldosteronism) as the primary diagnosis and 405.19 (Secondary hypertension; benign; other) as the secondary.