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Neurology & Pain Management Coding Alert

Report MS-Related Dysphagia With Specificity, No Unbundling

Published on Fri Jun 26, 2009

Comprehensive treatment code is key to pay on  NMES, TENS, DPNS claims. Considering the close relationship between difficulty swallowing and multiple sclerosis (MS), you should get a handle on coding dysphagia from complaint to treatment. The swallowing disorder (dysphagia) that many MS patients experience is far more frequent than expected, according to doctors reporting in the December 2008 journal Neurological Sciences. Dysphagia, difficulty with swallowing, is considered a dangerous condition from its onset because of its potentially serious complications, the physicians report. Map Dysphagia Dx to Specific Type If Known If a person complains to his doctor about any type of swallowing problem, the first thing that is usually recommended is a swallow evaluation by a speech-language pathologist (SLP), says Christine Lundblad, MA, CCC-SLP, a speech-language pathologist at Promise Hospital in Phoenix. We are the ones who actually diagnose dysphagia, determine what type (oral, pharyngeal, or oropharyngeal) and develop a [...]
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