Pediatric Coding Alert

You'll soon capture counseling per disease with universal multivaccine ICD-9 code.For combination vaccines that may involve counseling on as many as five different diseases, getting paid as though you counseled on one never seemed fair, but CPT 2011 lets you capture that extra counseling work."Multiple component vaccines (Pentacel, Kinrix, MMRV) have had an economic disincentive related to the loss of immunization administration codes with these vaccines," says Richard Tuck, MD, FAAP, pediatrician at PrimeCare of Southeastern Ohio in Zanesville. Combination vaccines involve counseling on each product. Since the current CPT vaccine administration codes (90465-90467) are coded per vaccine, the codes capture payment for only one counseling administration code.CPT 2011 will delete codes 90465-90468 (Immunization administration younger than 8 years of age ... when the physician counsels the patient/family ... per day). The 90471-90474 (Immunization administration ...) codes will remain.Great news: In 2011, you will report the immunization administration with counseling [...]