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ED Coding and Reimbursement Alert

Reader Question:

Use 640.0 for Vaginal Bleeding

Published on Wed Aug 27, 2003

Question: What is the proper way to code the following scenario? "A term-pregnancy patient presents at the ED with vaginal bleeding. The physician rules out rupture of membranes, and sends the patient home. She delivers the next day." Missouri Subscriber Answer: First and most important, you'll need to choose the appropriate ED E/M service from the 99281-99285 series based on the chart documentation. Depending on the workup provided, many pregnancy-associated cases are considered high risk. In this case, you would report the vaginal bleeding and link it to 640.0x (Threatened abortion).  
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