Wiki dx help please! MVA with arthritis

[ladymatthew]

what would be the best way to report DX for a patient who has arthritis of the thumb aggravated by an MVA. No other DX or symptoms but the MD performed an injection for CMC arthritis and I'm not sure that reporting with just the m18.12 code is appropriate if we are billing MV insurance..... can you please give me some guidance? thank you!

 

[Amy Pritchett]

Hi There
In this case, I would look within the documentation to see if the patient had a contusion or an injury to the thumb due to the MVA. That way, you can code for the contusion/injury and also add the arthritis as a secondary diagnosis for medical necessity of the procedure.

Hope this helps