Pediatric Coding Alert

Hint: Have the appropriate 'Q' modifier ready for substitute physicians who fill in when your pediatrician goes on vacation.

Summer is fast approaching, and with the nice weather comes new coding challenges for busy pediatric practices. Brush up on how to code these common summer situations by taking our simple three-question quiz and then checking your answers on page 36.

Get Ready to Treat Sunburns

Question 1: In the past, our office manager and physician have disagreed on how to code sunburn treatment. Should we code a first-degree burn treatment or an E/M code in these situations?

Nail Down Substitute Physician Coding

Question 2: One of our physicians decided to take a month off this summer to travel, and a temporary physician will take her place while she's gone. Which code or modifier should we use to indicate that certain services were performed by the substitute physician?

Remember 'E' Code for Bee Sting Diagnosis

Question 3: Every summer, we'll see a handful of patients who didn't know they were allergic to bee stings but present with the symptoms of a bee sting allergy, and the pediatrician will inject the patient with an antigen mix to treat the condition. We don't typically report an E/M code with these services but we recently read that we can. Is this valid?