Cardiology Coding Alert

Question: We have a patient who was diagnosed with white coat hypertension. Is there an ICD-9 code for this? Idaho SubscriberAnswer: Use 796.2 (Elevated blood pressure reading without diagnosis of hypertension) as your ICD-9 code. Remember that white coat hypertension (WCH) is diagnosed only when a patient has elevated blood pressure (BP) in the clinic setting but otherwise has normal BP outside the office.According to Medicare Claims Processing Manual, Chapter 32, Section 10,WCH should be suspected when a patient has all three of the following:1. Clinic/office blood pressure greater than140/90 mm Hg on at least three separate clinic/office visits with two separate measurements made at each visit2. At least two documented separate blood pressure measurements taken outside the clinic/office that are less than 140/90 mm Hg3. No evidence of end-organ damage.To establish a diagnosis of white coat hypertension, the patient undergoes ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM). Medicare will cover ABPM [...]