READER QUESTIONS :
Check Final Dx, Counseling Time, on Lab FU Visit
Published on Fri Apr 03, 2009
Question: When a patient returns to the office for review of her lab results, what procedure codes and diagnosis codes should I use? For instance, the patient had blood drawn in the office. We obtained the results from the outside laboratory.What procedure code and what diagnosis code should apply for the return visit to obtain the test results? Florida Subscriber Answer: The diagnosis you use depends on the individual encounter. There is no one specific ICD-9 code for reviewed results. Youll instead code what you know at the end of the encounter: " If the results discussed with the patient are positive for a definitive diagnosis, use that ICD-9 code. " If the results are negative, you can use the signs and symptoms that you used on the original encounter, in which the tests were ordered. For the CPT code, report the appropriate level office visit (99212-99215). You can consider [...]
