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Ok I'm having trouble with these and am getting conflicting advice. Two hypothetical scenarios;
1. 38 wk pregnant pt comes to our ED with contractions, not yet dilated. Dr describes her contractions as "irregular" and states she's "not yet in active labor". We send her home and tell her to follow up with her OB (which we do not offer at our facility) and continue to monitor her contractions. I am being told that I can either use O62.4 for the contractions or use Z34.93 as an encounter. Neither feel perfect to me.
2. same patient comes back, dilated to 8, regular contractions. Dr describes this as "active, full-term labor" and we initiate a transfer to the closest OB center (again, we don't have OB at our facility). I assume patient delivered once she got to that OB facility, but she did NOT deliver at our facility. Again, I'm being told to use either the O62.4 or the Z34.93.
The reasoning, I'm told, is that regular contractions aren't considered a "complication", just a natural progression of the pregnancy and that in fact, an absence of contractions would be a complication, which makes sense. But the codes just don't feel right to me. Thoughts?
1. 38 wk pregnant pt comes to our ED with contractions, not yet dilated. Dr describes her contractions as "irregular" and states she's "not yet in active labor". We send her home and tell her to follow up with her OB (which we do not offer at our facility) and continue to monitor her contractions. I am being told that I can either use O62.4 for the contractions or use Z34.93 as an encounter. Neither feel perfect to me.
2. same patient comes back, dilated to 8, regular contractions. Dr describes this as "active, full-term labor" and we initiate a transfer to the closest OB center (again, we don't have OB at our facility). I assume patient delivered once she got to that OB facility, but she did NOT deliver at our facility. Again, I'm being told to use either the O62.4 or the Z34.93.
The reasoning, I'm told, is that regular contractions aren't considered a "complication", just a natural progression of the pregnancy and that in fact, an absence of contractions would be a complication, which makes sense. But the codes just don't feel right to me. Thoughts?