Neurology & Pain Management Coding Alert

Watch these terms to avoid confusion over dementia diagnoses.When your neurologist assigns a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, you'll report ICD-9 code 331.0. But what if you're coding for a different diagnosis? Read on for the rundown on similar conditions and documentation clues to help you code correctly.Match Your Codes to These Terms"Physicians should document symptoms of additional severity if they exist," says Marianne Wink, RHIT, CPC, ACS-EM, a coder in Ontario, N.Y. "This might not add anything to reimbursement for E/M at the moment, but just documenting and coding 'dementia' or 'Alzheimer's' doesn't always report the severity of the disease."Lewy bodies: Dementia with Lewy bodies is characterized by abnormal deposits of a certain protein that form inside the brain's nerve cell. Researchers have found Lewy bodies (named after the scientist who first discovered them) in several brain disorders. Patients can experience symptoms similar to Alzheimer's, such as acute confusion, fluctuating [...]