Hint: Look at your ICD-10-CM long-term drug use appendix. Whether you’re coding the long-term use of a drug targeting a specific cancer, a drug targeting a condition caused by the cancer, a drug targeting the side effects of a cancer [...]
Knowing the ins and outs of Z79.- lets you incorporate a lot of information. You’ve had months to use the Z79.- (Long term (current) drug therapy) codes. Pause and make sure that your use of these drug therapy codes is [...]
Here’s the what, when, why, and how behind the Z79.6- codes. You may remember that, on Oct. 1, 2022, ICD-10-CM implemented a small but significant number of new Z79.- (Long term (current) drug therapy) codes. Now that you’ve lived with [...]
Looking at the order can provide helpful context. If you work at a lab and receive a request for drug testing, you may be able to glean from the order whether the test was ordered for screening or diagnostic purposes. [...]
Study this case to understand drug toxicity diagnoses. When your lab receives a request for drug testing, the ordering diagnosis may help you understand that a test is for diagnostic rather than screening purposes. The following case gives a picture [...]
Question: AAPC’s 2023 ICD-10-CM Expert “Appendix A: Z Codes for Long-term Use of Drugs” lists irinotecan as Z79.634 and Z79.64 and oxaliplatin as Z79.64 and Z79.630. Is the double code listing for each drug a typo? Or if not a typo, [...]
Hint: Context is key. Reporting the correct ICD-10-CM code to reflect drug toxicity can be tricky because there are so many moving parts. Understand how to break down the diagnostic process into six distinct steps and use these expert tips [...]
Hint: Know your T36-T50 definitions. Patients reporting to your oncologist with adverse reactions to their chemotherapy are commonplace. But describing this situation isn’t as simple as just applying a code from T36-T50 (Poisoning by, adverse effects of and underdosing of [...]
Learn to distinguish between adverse effect and poisoning. Sometimes, deciphering which ICD-10-CM code to report for an occurrence of drug toxicity can be tricky, so the process is best broken down into individual parts. As an otolaryngology coder, you know [...]
Hint: Some will affect medical decision making (MDM). There are almost 1,500 ICD-10-CM changes scheduled to take effect on Oct. 1, 2022, and gastroenterology coders will soon have a handful number of new Z79 (Long term (current) drug therapy) codes [...]
