ohn0disaster
Guest
Personally, I don't feel that documentation would support noncompliance. I'm assuming that is, word for word, what was documented. There could be many reasons that someone would miss an appointment. Their car broke down. They had a family emergency. They just plain forgot. This doesn't necessarily mean that they are noncompliant. We're all human, make mistakes and forget things or have something come up.
However, if the documentation supports the patient making a habit of missing appointments, that's a different story. I've had plenty of instances where the doc writes, "Diabetes, uncontrolled. Patient does not follow diabetic diet. Forgets to take insulin." or "Hyperlipidemia, not at goal due to patient not taking meds." To me, those constitute noncompliance with medical treatment.
Basically, it depends on the situation.
Maybe others will disagree and say that it would be noncompliance or that unless the doctor specifies noncompliance we cannot code as such, but this is just my take on the subject. Hope this helps.
However, if the documentation supports the patient making a habit of missing appointments, that's a different story. I've had plenty of instances where the doc writes, "Diabetes, uncontrolled. Patient does not follow diabetic diet. Forgets to take insulin." or "Hyperlipidemia, not at goal due to patient not taking meds." To me, those constitute noncompliance with medical treatment.
Basically, it depends on the situation.
Maybe others will disagree and say that it would be noncompliance or that unless the doctor specifies noncompliance we cannot code as such, but this is just my take on the subject. Hope this helps.