Gastroenterology Coding Alert

Presence or absence of diarrhea aids in diagnosis selection. Your gastroenterologist might see patients with abdominal pain regularly. Abdominal pain can result from a variety of conditions, one such being irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), so knowing how to report this diagnosis with ICD-10 codes will definitely ease your coding challenges when the new code set comes into effect. Review These Details in Documentation Your gastroenterologist will usually eliminate the possibility of other conditions to arrive at the diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome. Your gastroenterologist will only be able to arrive at a final diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome based on findings of history, examination, observational findings during colonoscopy, imaging studies and laboratory findings. Some symptoms that will trigger your gastroenterologist to suspect irritable bowel syndrome include abdominal cramping and discomfort (R10.9, Unspecified abdominal pain); flatulence (R14.3, Flatulence); bloating and abdominal distension (R14.0, Abdominal distension [gaseous]); episodes of diarrhea (R19.7, Diarrhea, [...]