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ED Coding and Reimbursement Alert

Reader Questions:

Roll Rabies Vaccination into E/M

Published on Wed Apr 20, 2011

Question: A patient presents to the ED with a dog bite on his left abdominal wall, near the epigastric area. Notes indicate the injury was a puncture wound with some slight bruising, but was uncomplicated in nature. During a level-two E/M service, the physician sterilizes the wound and packs it with gauze. During the E/M, the patient reports that the dog that bit him was a stray, and it "ran off" after the attack. Due to the unknown nature of the dog's health, the physician administers a rabies vaccination. How should I code this encounter? Minnesota SubscriberAnswer:You'll have to roll the rabies vaccination work into the ED E/M service and report a single code for the entire encounter. On the claim, you'll likely report either 99282 (Emergency department visit for the evaluation and management of a patient, which requires these 3 key components: an expanded problem focused history; an expanded [...]
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