Encounter for other and unspecified procedures and aftercare (V58)

Question: A patient recently visited us and enquired about the mandated spirometry tests required for a new insulin inhalation treatment. How should we report these tests?  Washington Subscriber Answer: There is indeed an inhaled insulin now available by prescription, a new medication [...]

Question: An established patient visited a podiatrist in another state because of a laceration to his foot. The physician sutured the cut and told him to follow up later. He visited our office for the suture removal. During the visit, the [...]

Hint: Diabetes before pregnancy is different from gestational diabetes. If you’ve run into a situation where you need to convince your payer that a diabetic pregnant patient diabetes require services that are separate from the global package and require a [...]

Tip: Don’t throw away your current coding rule book after Oct. 1. You might need to code on the basis of signs and symptoms even under ICD-10. Despite anything you have heard to the contrary, the new diagnosis coding system [...]

Question: A patient reports flashes and floaters but the ophthalmologist does not find evidence of retinal pathology on routine ophthalmoscopy. Are we justified in billing for extended ophthalmoscopy (EO)? Kansas Subscriber Answer: If the ophthalmoscopy is a routine part of a [...]

Question: When the ophthalmologist performs OCT on a patient using Plaquenil for rheumatoid arthritis to check for ophthalmic side effects, what diagnosis codes should I report? Nebraska Subscriber Answer: When you’re checking a patient’s eyes for the harmful effects of Plaquenil, make [...]

When you look forward to Oct. 1, you’ll be looking back at your existing signs/symptoms coding rules. Although you may have heard that ICD-10 includes a code for every condition under the sun, that news may have been exaggerated. In [...]

E/M codes will likely be more appropriate for your pediatrician’s services. Your pediatricians probably see patients for medication monitoring at least a few times a week—but if you’re not coding these correctly, you could be risking thousands of dollars a [...]

Find the right answers to these clinical scenarios. Laceration repairs are among the most common procedures performed in dermatology practices – and along with those common procedures come some common coding mishaps. How well do you have your laceration repair [...]

When you look forward to Oct. 1, you’ll be looking back at your existing signs/symptoms coding rules. Although you may have heard that ICD-10 includes a code for every condition under the sun, that news may have been exaggerated. In [...]