Try to teach to 97 guidelines
First as to the exam: I try to educate my physicians to the 97 guidelines (even though I might use the 95 guidelines when actually auditing). Why? Because the 97 guidelines are very specific about what constitutes a bullet point. "Unremarkable" wouldn't get you any bullet points with the 97 guidelines.
That being said, using the 95 guidelines, there could be a presumption on the part of the person auditing that the physician actually examined that system, but found nothing pertinent to report. So an auditor might give credit for "unremarkable" if s/he is following that thinking.
Again, I educate my docs to "document what you do, and I'll code what you document."
Now as to ROS: I educate my physicians that "unremarkable" or "non-contributory" lead me, as an auditor, to believe that the physician did not even review that system. So I give no credit for that phrasing. I WILL give credit if they list the pertinent positives and then indicate "all other systems reviewed and are negative." (Of course, they have to have actually reviewed them! ... This is where our patient questionaire comes in handy, with the doctor's signature & date of reivew on it.)
F Tessa Bartels, CPC, CPC-E/M