Ob-Gyn Coding Alert

Heads up: Pregnancy won't always be your primary diagnosis. The starting line for global maternal care isn't always clear-cut when a patient presents for an annual visit. At the beginning of the visit, she may or may not know she's pregnant, but you should stick to one rule: you must code what you know at the end of the visit. Link Test Result to Test in This Annual-Exam Scenario Annual visits often lead to coding confusion when your ob-gyn establishes a patient's pregnancy. You should choose from a range of different E/M codes according to three scenarios: a patient's annual visit leads to a diagnosis of her pregnancy she arrives knowing that she is pregnant the ob-gyn eliminates other possible diagnoses. Scenario 1: Your ob-gyn diagnoses pregnancy during a patient's annual exam. Can you still report the annual exam? Solution 1: Yes, you can still report the annual exam, says Rachel [...]