Ob-Gyn Coding Alert
Retained Products of Conception Do Not Equal Complication
Question: A patient had an elective abortion elsewhere. She came to our clinic, and the ob-gyn performed a dilation and curettage for retained products of conception that were not completely removed from her previous procedure. Should we consider this a complication of the elective abortion? Should I use O08.7 or O08.89?
California Subscriber
Answer: Whenever a patient has retained products of conception after a therapeutic/elective abortion, ICD-10 rules consider the patient to have had a failed abortion. In this case, because the patient had an elective abortion, the correct diagnostic codes would be O07.4 (Failed attempted termination of pregnancy without complication) and Z33.2 (Encounter for elective termination of pregnancy) even though your physician did not perform the initial procedure.
Codes O08.7 (Other venous complications following an ectopic and molar pregnancy) and O08.89 (Other complications following an ectopic and molar pregnancy) are for complications following the abortion and retained products. You shouldn’t categorize this patient’s condition as a complication but simply an incomplete abortion.
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Retained Products of Conception Do Not Equal Complication
Question: A patient had an elective abortion elsewhere. She came to our clinic, and the ob-gyn [...]
