Primary Care Coding Alert

Question: A 28-year-old established patient reports to the FP complaining of burning during urination and kidney pain. After a level-two E/M, the FP orders a bacterial urine culture. Notes indicate that the patient had blood in urine, unseen with naked eye. What diagnosis code best represents this condition? Texas Subscriber Answer: It sounds like the FP diagnosed microscopic hematuria (599.72); use this diagnosis when the patient has blood in the urine that is not visible without a urine test. This is a new ICD-9 code for 2009, so you might have overlooked it. On the claim, report the following: " 87086 (Culture, bacterial; quantitative colony count, urine) for the urine culture " 99212 (Office or other outpatient visit for the evaluation and management of an established patient, which requires at least 2 of these 3 key components: a problem focused history; a problem focused examination; straightforward medical decision making ...) [...]