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Pulmonology Coding Alert

You Be the Coder:

Postoperative Pneumonia

Published on Wed May 01, 2002

Test your coding knowledge. Determine how you would code this situation before looking at the box below for the answer.
Question: How should we code a consultative visit for a surgical patient with postoperative pneumonia?

Utah Subscriber

Answer: A pulmonary consultation for a patient with pneumonia is coded with the appropriate level E/M code (i.e., 99241-99245 for outpatient and 99251-99255 for inpatient). If the pneumonia is a direct complication of the surgical procedure, 997.3 can be reported. Otherwise, 485 would be coded for bronchopneumonia when the causative organism was unknown or unspecified. Codes 480.0-484.8 are used to report pneumonia due to specific identified organisms. Frequently, postoperative patients develop hypostatic pneumonia, which is coded as 514.
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