Pediatric Coding Alert

Question: The expanded 779.3x subcategory codes seem so similar. Can you help me understand their differences?

Illinois Subscriber

Answer: To guide you in distinguishing between the 779.3x (Disorder of stomach function and feeding problems in newborn) codes, check out these descriptions:

• 779.31 (Feeding problems in newborn): Feeding problems may be from underfeeding or overfeeding or trouble with feedings, such as spitting or gagging.

Underfeeding results from the infant's failure to take sufficient amounts of milk. Pediatricians often spot this problem when the newborn fails to gain weight appropriate for this age or when the mother notices that the newborn suckles infrequently or for only short periods of time.

• 779.32 (Bilious vomiting in newborn): Bilious vomiting is vomiting of gastric contents containing bile, often described as greenish vomitus.

• 779.33 (Other vomiting in newborn): Vomiting is the complete emptying of the stomach contents often occurring after feeding.

• 779.34 (Failure to thrive in newborn): Reflected in how the newborn gains or loses weight in relation to his birth or recent weights.

Beware: "In Pediatric Coding Alert, Vol. 12, No. 9, there is a typo on page 66," points out Christine DuBois,  PC, coding coordinator/compliance officer for Western Mass Physician Associates in Chicopee. The bulleted entry incorrectly lists the code for vomiting, bilious, newborn as 779.31 instead of the correct code, 779.32. "In the narrative above, the code is correct," she says.