Wiki Neoplasm pain

mholland

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If a patient presents to the ED w/789.01 - right upper quadrant pain and during the course of the exam the patient informs attending physician that he is currently being treated for pancreatic cancer, metastic to liver, which is documented by the ED physician and the ED physican documents that he will prescribe pain meds until his appointment w/his treating physician is the coder allowed to link pain in neoplasm or does the attending physician have to literally link the two in order to code 338.3 + 157.9, 1977 and 789.01? I was unable to find any information in Coding Clinic. Please open for discussion.

thank you
mholland CPC
 
I wouldn 't code the 338.3 -
I'd code 789.01 - 157.9 - 197.7 (in that order also, abdominal pain first)
{that's my opinion on the posted matter}
 
Neoplasm Pain

Donna - According to the 2009 Coder's Desk reference for Diagnoses it states " Code 338.3is assigned to pain documented as being related, associayed or due to cancer, primary or secondary malignancy, or tumor." My gut instinct as a previous coder for radiation, oncology and hematology coding was to code exactly as the 2009 Coder's Desk reference implies. Donna - a good resource to refer to in a crunch.

Marybeth:)
 
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