Wiki Cellulitis w/o mention of organism

[chaimz]

A doctor's dictation states "the whole area was swollen, tender, hyperalgesic with cellulitis of the left anterior foot".

under category 682, it states an additional code is needed to identify the organism.

Just to make sure that I'm correct, I cannot code for cellulitis, because there is no mention of the organism, even though he happens to diagnose the pt with cellulitis. Is this correct?

 

[lkfloyd]

you can code the cellulitis, its basically a NOS code per area of the body affected. the "use additional " code to identify organism is IF the physician has documented it then it reminds you to add it too. Hope this helps

 

[chaimz]

It does. Thanks