Primary Care Coding Alert

Hypertension coding can be tricky for even the most seasoned coders. It requires sound medical knowledge and a thorough understanding of ICD-10 guidelines.

That’s why we put together this quiz, which features questions about how to code the following three scenarios. Answer them correctly, and you’ll be sure to up your hypertension coding game.

Scenario: During an office visit, a patient records a blood pressure reading in excess of 140/90 mm Hg. The provider notes that the patient had recorded a similar reading in an office visit a week earlier, but also notes that two other blood pressure readings taken by a home-health nurse in the interim period were well within the normal range. The doctor notes there is no evidence of organ damage.

Question 1: In this scenario, would you document a hypertensive disease code, a different ICD-10 code, or no code at all?

Scenario: Your physician documents a patient as having left ventricular failure caused by hypertension.

Question 2: In this scenario, would you code both the ventricular failure and the hypertension, just the heart failure, or just the hypertension? And, if you use two codes, which one would you sequence first?

Scenario: Your physician documents a patient as having renal artery stenosis and hypertension.

Question 3: In this scenario, would you code both the renal artery stenosis and the hypertension, just the renal artery stenosis, or just the hypertension? And, if you use two codes, which one would you sequence first?

Think you know the answers? Click here to know the Answers.