Diagnositic colonoscopy changing back to screening

[2rjjapetal]

I have a patient that comes in for a screening colonoscopy and a polyp is found so the colonoscopy is changed to a diagnostic in addition when the patient returns for his follow-up colon in 2-3 years it is a diagnostic.
My questions is: No polyp is found on the next diagnostic colonoscopy so when the patient returns for a return colonoscopy (8-10 years) can this be coded as a Screening again?

(is there anywhere that tells us how long a patient has to go without polpys before a diagnostic can be changed back to a screening?)
Thanks
Janet

 

[thomas7331]

I'm not an expert in this area, but if the return colonoscopy is not being done for any particular problem or symptom, it still meets the definition of a screening even if there was a history of a polyp. The history makes the patient a higher risk, which is why there is a shorter interval between screenings, but it is still a screening as it's not being done to diagnose any particular issue that the patient is having.

 

[Carbon06]

Yes it can be coded as a screening again since no polyps were found. The number of years is 10 between clean colonoscopies.