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Primary Care Coding Alert

Tally TPI Targets or Risk Miscoding Claim

Published on Tue May 26, 2009

4-step FAQ can make you a top TPI gun. FP coders who want to perfect their trigger point injection (TPI) claims can use this FAQ to answer the Who, what, when, and why? of TPIs. 1. Who Needs TPIs? Most patients who require TPIs are suffering from head or muscle pain, according to experts. Trigger points are knots of muscle that form when muscles do not relax. Headaches are another reason that physicians perform TPI, explains Joanne Mehmert, CPC, CCS-P, owner of Joanne Mehmert & Associates in Kansas City. When your FP performs TPIs, the most common diagnosis reported is 729.1 (Myalgia and myositis, unspecified), says Judith Blaszczyk, RN, CPC, ACS-PM, president of Veritas Consulting in Greencastle, Pa. Look out: Physicians might also use these synonyms for myalgia/myositis: myofascitis, myofascial pain, fibromyalgia. Code any of these diagnoses with 729.1, Mehmert recommends. Other diagnoses that might accompany a TPI claim include [...]
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