Multiple fractures of hand bones (817)

Question: A year after undergoing a mastectomy, the patient returns for a scar revision that includes a complex closure in the left underarm area because of discomfort and pain. The mastectomy led to a C50.212 diagnosis. The patient continues to receive [...]

See whether pediatric stomach pain is coded differently. When it comes to stomach issues, patients can experience a lot of different symptoms, and providers can document a lot of terms and codes for the different stomach ailments. All of these [...]

Also: find several GI symptom codes for quick reference. Gastrointestinal problems can present a seemingly infinite number of symptoms and diagnoses, which can make coding these types of encounters challenging. Primary care practitioners (PCPs) see a lot of bellyaches that [...]

Question: A 31-year-old patient saw our gastroenterologist complaining of abdominal pain lasting about 24 hours. The pain was accompanied by flatulence, but no vomiting or diarrhea. The patient’s last bowel movement was that morning, but it was hard to pass. The [...]

Question: A 31-year-old patient saw our gastroenterologist complaining of abdominal pain lasting about 24 hours. The pain was accompanied by flatulence, but no vomiting or diarrhea. The patient’s last bowel movement was that morning, but it was hard to pass. [...]

Are you familiar with the term eFAST? Trauma patients are a given in the ED setting, and a number of the patients who report with traumatic impact injuries are candidates for a FAST exam. There are several components to a [...]

Potential headache: Hospices must wait on MA submissions for payment when patients disenroll. You can’t count on that payment for a patient enrolled in a Medicare Advantage VBID plan to stay yours forever, according to new Medicare Administrative Contractor guidance. [...]

How long will hospices wait for a CWF correction? Watch out: If you serve a patient enrolled in a Medicare Advantage VBID plan, you could find Medicare hospice payments for that patient pulled back down the line. A newly posted [...]

Find out if 72149 covers the S1 region. Lower back pain can be, well, a pain to diagnose, treat, and code. Finding the correct code to match which area of the spine the provider imaged or remembering that spondylosis with [...]

Hint: You may need to rely on signs and symptoms instead of a distinct Dx. One of the foundational aspects of ICD-10-CM coding is looking to the documentation for a specific diagnosis. But sometimes, when coding gastrointestinal (GI) conditions, you [...]