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kat1940

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I hope someone can help me with this, I am working in outpatinet coding radiology and we sometimes have the radiologist use the term osteoarthiritic changes or arthritic changes.
I don't see anything saying specifically that the patient has arthritis and I asked my supervior about this, she said that the patient has arthritis so I am safe to code it.
Does anyone know of anything in coding clinic or any citation about this situation? Should I code the changes as arthritis as my supervisor has told me?
I have seen another coder code the osteoarthritic changes as arthritis but I don't feel comfortable coding this.
Thanks
 
kat1940 said:
I hope someone can help me with this, I am working in outpatinet coding radiology and we sometimes have the radiologist use the term osteoarthiritic changes or arthritic changes.
I don't see anything saying specifically that the patient has arthritis and I asked my supervior about this, she said that the patient has arthritis so I am safe to code it.
Does anyone know of anything in coding clinic or any citation about this situation? Should I code the changes as arthritis as my supervisor has told me?
I have seen another coder code the osteoarthritic changes as arthritis but I don't feel comfortable coding this.
Thanks
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Well, if the radiologist is using the term "osteoarthritic CHANGES" - then by definitition, the patient already had osteoartritis, and I would be okay coding that.

You might want to be careful with "arthritic changes" though. Does this refer to osteoartritis, or rheumatoid arthritis, see?
 
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