Internal Medicine Coding Alert
Reader question:
Coding Negative Strep Test Forces You to Rely on Symptoms
Published on Thu Sep 15, 2011 
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Question:
Georgia Subscriber
Answer:
The physician should write a letter appealing the claim and noting that based on his clinical diagnosis, the patient exhibited other symptoms of strep besides pharyngitis and scarlet fever. For example, the combination of headache (784.0), abdominal pain (789.00), and vomiting (787.03) led the physician to believe that the patient may have been experiencing strep throat. If the patient mentioned exposure to strep at work or at home, the physician should mention that in his letter, and you should report the appropriate V code for it (for instance, V01.89, Contact with or exposure to other communicable diseases).Other Articles in this issue of
Internal Medicine Coding Alert
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