Internal Medicine Coding Alert

Question: Which diagnosis code should I use for a patient coming to our office only for an allergy injection? The patient is bringing her own medication. All we are doing is injecting her, not treating for the allergy.

Georgia Subscriber

Answer: As always, you should choose the ICD-9 code that most closely describes the reason for the service, based on the information provided in the documentation.

You have a couple of options for coding the diagnosis for the described encounter: If you don't know the specific allergy, use V07.1 (Desensitization to allergens). If you do know that the patient is taking the allergy shot for a specific condition, report the code for that condition. For example, if the patient is receiving allergy shots for an allergy to food or pollen, you should report a diagnosis code from the 477.x series (Allergic rhinitis).