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Gastroenterology Coding Alert

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Coding Quiz: Don't Overlook Flex/Rigid Sigmoidoscopy Disparity

Published on Thu Feb 10, 2011

Get fresh know-how from these real life situations.Your gastroenterologist might use sigmoidoscopy to examine a patient for alternative conditions when she suspects irritable bowel syndrome, but there's more to the procedure than meets the eye. Sigmoidoscopy expands to two types: flexible sigmoidoscopy, which uses a flexible endoscope inserted in the anus to check the inner linings of the large intestine, and rigid sigmoidoscopy, which has the same purpose but uses a rigid endoscope.In coding between these two types, you would have to adopt a keen eye to spot the difference. Preparation will play a big part in the success of billing the procedure. Test yourself with these three scenarios and find out.Scenario 1: A gastroenterologist in our practice was recently treating a patient with a diagnosis of proctitis and continuous rectal bleeding. The gastroenterologist performed a sigmoidoscopy with biopsy during the first encounter. During the second encounter (which took 45 [...]
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