Wiki diagnosis points

chasarmil

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A question came up and I wanted to get some other opinions on this.
If an established patient comes into the office and sees a different provider in the same group/speciality for a follow up of a established condition, would you consider the problem to be a new problem to the examiner or an established problem?

Thanks
 
A question came up and I wanted to get some other opinions on this.
If an established patient comes into the office and sees a different provider in the same group/speciality for a follow up of a established condition, would you consider the problem to be a new problem to the examiner or an established problem?

Thanks

New problem to the examiner. Just one more thing to cause confusion against the "new patient vs established patient" guidelines :)
 
New Patient: hasn't seen a Dr in 3 years (not the; same speciality, subspecialty, or group).
Established Patient: has been seen in 3 years (same specialty, subspecialty, and group)
 
If that provider has not seen the patient for the diagnosis, then it would be a "new problem" (not "new patient") to that examiner so that they could get the extra credit under the # of Diagnosis/Treatment Options area. However, I would educate the doctors to make a notation in their note that this is a new problem to them!
 
Related question:

The provider saw the patient for this problem on the last visit, but did not know what it is, so did a biopsy. Now that the path is back, the next visit has a new diagnosis code based on the path report. Is this a "new diagnosis"?
 
I would say no, this is not a new problem. Since the doctor already saw the patient for this issue and had work-up done to verify a diagnosis, then it is still the same problem - it just has a name now! :)
 
I would say no, this is not a new problem. Since the doctor already saw the patient for this issue and had work-up done to verify a diagnosis, then it is still the same problem - it just has a name now! :)

I agree with Jodi...same problem, just now has a more definitive diagnosis! :)
 
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