Wiki Diagnosis coding for MRI

[lferry]

Hi,
I was recently told that when billing for MRI, you code diagnosis from the order. I was trained to code the actual diagnosis if you have it. In this case the radiologists report.
Appreciate anyones help with this.

Thanks Linda

 

[torresreb]

when to code incoming symptoms

well from what i understand, (Medicare logic) you are to code the signs and symptoms for the first exam then the findings for any subsequent exams.. example

1st exam; MRI brain - signs and symptoms are:

dizziness blurred vision - you code the dizziness and blurred vision regardless of findings. say the findings is a tumor you cannot code tumor until the next exam

2 and/or subsequent brain MR's:

you code the findings from the 1st exam in this case it would be the tumor.

this is also true for mammograms, the way i was told (trained) according to Medicare one does not know what the findings will be until the exam is completed thus you code the incoming signs and symptoms. hope this helped and made sense.

 

[martha37]

This was helpful do you have any written documentation to back this up, if so i would like to see it, thanks