Home Health ICD-9/ICD-10 Alert

Question: We have a Medicaid patient whom the nurse sees to fill meds and monitor their effectiveness.  What diagnosis code should we report?

Louisiana Subscriber

Answer: To code this scenario you need to identify what condition the medication is treating because you are, in a sense, monitoring the stability of the diseases being treated, as well as the medication's effects or side effects.

There are V codes that address long-term use of certain medication, and there are new ones coming as of Oct. 1. Look in the V58.6x section (Long-term [current] drug use) and choose the five-digit code that describes the drug the patient is taking. Another option to consider is V58.83 (Encounter for therapeutic drug monitoring), depending on the medical record.

- Reader Questions were answered by Lynda Dilts-Benson, RN, CAM, CORN, HAS-DO, HARM, a consultant with Reingruber and Co. in St. Petersburg, Fla.