Pediatric Coding Alert

Question: The day after a patient received vaccine shots, the mother brought the girl back in for a huge knot in her leg at the injection site. Should I charge for this visit? Indiana Subscriber Answer: Yes, you should report the visit with the appropriate-level office visit code (9921x, Office or other outpatient visit for the evaluation and management of an established patient ...). Consider a few possibilities for the ICD-9 code. If the knot was due to an adverse effect or allergic reaction to a properly administered product, use 995.2x (Other and unspecified adverse effect of drug, medicinal and biological substance). Check out ICD-9s Table of Drugs and Chemicals for E codes that indicate the specific substance that caused the injury. If the substance is specified, you would use a fifth digit of 9 for other drug, medicinal and biological substance. For instance, an adverse effect to the measles [...]