Wiki Combining multiple chief complaints elements for an extended HPI

[Love Coding!]

Hi,

Would anyone know if Noridian JF will accept an extended HPI by combining multiple chief complaint elements?

Example: Chief complaint - Patient with headache and stomach pain

"Patient comes in with a headache (location) that has lasted for two weeks (duration). The patient is also experiencing stomach pain on a scale of 1-10 being an 8 (severity). Pepto (modifying factor) seems to calm this down.

I was told at one time that this was acceptable, but it has been a while since I have heard this and could not find anything in my research.

Any help will be appreciated.

 

[CatchTheWind]

It's fine to count all four, since they are four different elements.

Where the problem comes in is when you have the same two elements on each of the two complaints (say, location of each and duration of each) for a total of four. Some carriers (ie: Novitas) may allow this, but most will not.

There was a good AAD article on this at https://www.aad.org/dw/monthly/2012/september/understanding-hpi-elements