Wiki wellness labs

[jberg@itctel.com]

When a patient comes in for their wellness exam and has labs, such as the general health panel, metabolic panel, maybe glucose testing, tsh labs and they have diabetes, hypothyroidism, hypertension, is it alright to just use the wellness dx, V70.0 on the labs instead of the diagnosis for the conditions they have. I am inclined to code the conditions that have already been diagnosed. Another coder says no, that it is there wellness and they should be coded as that. Any input would be appreciated.

 

[ehanna]

When a patient comes in for their wellness exam and has labs, such as the general health panel, metabolic panel, maybe glucose testing, tsh labs and they have diabetes, hypothyroidism, hypertension, is it alright to just use the wellness dx, V70.0 on the labs instead of the diagnosis for the conditions they have. I am inclined to code the conditions that have already been diagnosed. Another coder says no, that it is there wellness and they should be coded as that. Any input would be appreciated.

It's my opinion the doctor ordered those tests because they have those conditions. I would use the diabetes, hypothyroid etc if they have the condition and use a screening diagnosis if they do not.

I hope this helps

 

[lgardner]

I know that some commercial insurances require screening codes (v72.62, btw...not v70.0), but Medicare requires a diagnosis (if the patient has one, of course).