Primary Care Coding Alert

Acute episodes, check-ups are both routine for these patients. When migraine headache coding comes up, ICD-9 codes typically dominate the conversation. But what about the procedure codes those complicated migraine diagnoses are attached to? There are several common situations in which a migraine patient might report to the FP. Check out the top three migraine treatment scenarios, along with expert coding advice on each situation. Situation 1: Separate E/M and Acute Migraine Tx One of your FP's patients might report to the practice with symptoms, and then end up requiring treatment for an acute migraine headache. Consider this example from Mari Wink RHIT, CPC, ACS-EM, an independent coding consultant in New York. Example: An established patient reports to the FP with complaints of recurring headaches. The patient's past medical history indicates that the FP has prescribed several pain medications to combat the headaches, with no success, during previous  E/Ms. The [...]