Primary Care Coding Alert

Question: Is there an ICD-9 diagnosis we can use to code for urine drug screening? New York Subscriber Answer: ICD-9 does not provide a specific code for urine drug screening. Therefore, it is important to establish the medical necessity for requesting a urine drug screening. This could either be for a general screening drug test or to screen for a specific drug based on known history of drug use or signs and symptoms manifested by the patient. For general screening purposes, use this code for urine drug screening: • V70.3 -- General medical examination; other medical examination for administrative purposes. For example, an FP orders a urine drug screening for an elderly patient prior to being admitted to an old age home. Patient has no known history of drug abuse nor shows any signs and symptoms of drug dependence or withdrawal. Therefore, a V code (V70.3) will be appropriate as the [...]