Internal Medicine Coding Alert
Reader Questions:
Translate Your Internist's Notes
Published on Sun Aug 28, 2005 
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Question: Our practice's internist diagnosed a patient with a vitamin B deficiency and noted, "B-12 folate, B complex injection." Should I code this as two injections?
Oregon Subscriber
Answer: No, because B-12 folate is actually a blood test. You can report 82607 (Cyanocobalamin [vitamin B-12]) for the B-12 folate test and J3420 (Injection, vitamin B-12 cyanocobalamin, up to 1,000 mcg) for the B complex injection. If your internist didn't identify the vitamin B deficiency's cause, you can code the diagnosis as 266.9 (Unspecified vitamin B deficiency).
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