Aftercare visit codes are assigned in situations in which the initial treatment of a disease has been performed but the patient requires continued care during the healing or recovery phase, or for the long-term consequences of the disease. ICD-10 makes two important points about the use of aftercare codes in the final chapter. The aftercare […]
Diagnosis Coding for Biopsy Sent for Pathology
Question: What diagnosis code should you use when sending a skin biopsy to pathology? a) D48.5 Neoplasm of uncertain behavior of skin, or b) D49.2 Neoplasm of unspecified behavior of bone, soft tissue, and skin Answer: The answer is b! Use an unspecified code when a specific diagnosis code is not known at the […]
ICD-10 Coding for Suspected Cancer
Diagnosis coding for possible malignancy How would you feel if your primary care physician and your general surgeon told you-and told your insurance company on a claim form-that you had breast cancer, when you didn’t have breast cancer? You actually had atypical ductal hyperplasia, not breast cancer. Not only have they told you, the claim […]