Ob-Gyn Coding Alert

Question: A patient came in to speak with her primary-care physician (PCP) regarding the fact that she was on Lexapro when she conceived. She is about six weeks pregnant. The PCP will not be following the pregnancy, so his practice has referred her to our ob-gyn office with this in their notes. Would the appropriate diagnosis code be 760.79?


Alabama Subscriber
Answer: No. Code 760.79 (Noxious influences affecting fetus or newborn via placenta or breast milk; other) is a perinatal code that you should use on the baby's chart after birth (or when the adult was exposed to a drug in utero and now has a problem).

For counseling regarding taking a high-risk drug, use V67.51 (Follow-up examination; following completed treatment with high-risk medications, not elsewhere classified) if she is no longer taking the drug, but V58.69 (Long-term [current] use of other medications) if she is still taking it.

You can use V22.2 (Pregnant state, incidental) as an optional secondary diagnosis if you wish.