ED Coding and Reimbursement Alert
Go Straight to Source for Pain Code
Question: A patient came in to the ED with a chief complaint of -dental wire poking into his lip.- After the physician examined him and discharged him with the instruction -Follow up with dentist and get some wax from the drug store,- the physician didn't perform any further treatment. The final diagnosis on the chart: Dental hardware pain. What diagnosis code should I report for this?
Texas Subscriber
Answer: Your best option in this scenario is simply to bill out with a diagnosis for mouth pain (or lip or gum, if somewhere in the chart it indicates exactly what the hardware was poking). Yes, the physician stated -dental hardware pain,- but the hardware doesn't hurt -quot; the patient's mouth hurts because of the hardware. So, you could follow up the pain code with either a -postprocedural complication code- or a relevant E code, whichever better fits your practice's preference.
ED Coding and Reimbursement Alert
- Extinguish These 5 Critical Care Myths
And watch your reimbursement rise from the ashes
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Florida Subscriber
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Go Straight to Source for Pain Code
Question: A patient came in to the ED with a chief complaint of -dental wire [...] - Reader Questions:
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Question: We regularly see these two diagnoses:
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