Pediatric Coding Alert
Look to 99420 for Mother's Postpartum Screening
Question: We are planning to start performing postpartum screenings on the mothers of the newborns that come into the practice. Can you advise which CPT® and ICD-10 codes apply to this service? We were looking at O90.6, but it doesn’t seem quite right.
Codify Subscriber
Answer: For the service itself, you should report 99420 (Administration and interpretation of health risk assessment instrument [e.g., health hazard appraisal]).
Avoid this: You are correct in trusting your gut that O90.6 (Postpartum mood disturbance) is not necessarily applicable in this case. That’s because this code indicates the patient has already been diagnosed with postnatal/postpartum depression -- not that she’s being screened for the condition.
When looking up screening in the ICD-10 manual, mental health screening points to an “other” code -- Z13.89 (Encounter for screening for other disorder). So unless your payer advises otherwise, that is most likely your best bet.
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Look to 99420 for Mother's Postpartum Screening
Question: We are planning to start performing postpartum screenings on the mothers of the newborns that [...]
