Wiki Coding BMI without an obesity code

[angelalhale]

I just finished a training by an Payer that is saying that you can code a BMI with any condition where the BMI is "clinically significant" to the conditions (examples are DM, HTN, OSA..) There is so much confusion out there, does anyone have another time when they have heard that you can code a BMI as a secondary code to one of these conditions?

 

[cherylaconte@gmail.com]

yes That diagnosis code cannot be billed as the primary diagnosis as it is only an informative code. A primary diagnosis needs to be assigned (I.e. obesity, morbid obesity, overweight, nutritional counseling,, HTN, DM., OSA etc.).