Ob-Gyn Coding Alert

With so many different types of abortion, knowing the medical terminology is essential to coding related services based on your ob-gyn's documentation. By being familiar with these common types of abortions, you take the first step to assigning the correct ICD-9 and CPT® codes:

Complete -- The complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of a fetus or embryo; complete expulsion from the uterus of any other product of conception (for example, blighted ovum).

Elective -- Without medical justification but performed in a legal way.

Incomplete -- Part of the products of conception have been passed, but part (usually the placenta) remains in the uterus.

Induced -- Expulsion of the fetus and products of conception brought on purposefully by drugs or mechanical means.

Inevitable -- Characterized by rupture of the membranes in the presence of cervical dilation in a previable pregnancy.

Missed -- Death of the fetus in utero prior to 22 weeks, with retention of the products of conception

Septic -- An infectious abortion complicated by fever, endometriosis or parametritis.

Spontaneous -- An abortion that has not been induced artificially. This term is usually limited to pregnancies of less than 22 weeks gestation.

Therapeutic -- interruption of pregnancy before the 20th completed week of gestation for legally acceptable, medically approved indications.