Wiki DX code denial as principal dx- Infectious Disease

[mtsoldevila]

I work for an infectious disease office. I billed K82.A2, D72.829,R50.9 on this same order and it was denied for invalid principal dx. I then billed K82.1 as primary and then K82.A2, D72.829,R50.9 ,and received the same denial. I looked at the coding guidelines for k81.1 and k82a.2 and cant find anything that tells me how to bill. Anyone knows why these codes are denied as primary dx codes?

 

[thomas7331]

Did you bill K82.1 or K81.1 as primary? K81.1 should work but K82.1 would not be a correct primary code. There's a 'code first' note in the tabular list under K82.A- which tell you that you need a code for the type of cholecystitis to be listed primary to K82.A2.