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General Surgery Coding Alert

You Be the Coder:

Scrutinize Primary ICD-10 'Z' Codes

Published on Fri Jun 17, 2016

Question: Can we use “Z” codes as a primary diagnosis? For instance, if the surgeon sees a patient to remove an existing gastrostomy tube, should we report Z43.1 as the diagnosis for the encounter? Louisiana Subscriber Answer: Yes, “Z codes are allowed as primary codes when they are the best description for the main reason a patient is being seen,” says Judy [...]
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