Part B Insider (Multispecialty) Coding Alert
Make Docs Say TIA When They Mean TIA
Published on Thu Jan 20, 2005
If you don't encourage physicians to write the correct terminology in their records, you can face time-consuming denials for medically necessary services.
For example: Physicians sometimes use "cerebral ischemia" as an interchangeable term with "transient ischemic attack" (TIA), but the two are very different in coding terms, says consultant Jackie Miller with Dallas, GA-based Coding Strategies Inc. Coders will translate cerebral ischemia to ICD-9 code 437.1 (Other generalized ischemic vascular disease) and convert TIA to a more specific ICD-9 code, 435.9 (Unspecified transient cerebral ischemia). Medicare will pay for some treatments with 435.9 but not with 437.1.
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