"Based on ICD-9 guidelines I think this is coded correctly."
Yes indeed.
Screening is the TEST for disease or disease Precursors IN SEEMINGLY WELL individuals so that early detection and management can be provided for those who test positive for the disease.- This is our Gold standard Like other examples narrated (in Diagnosis guidelines ), osteoporosis can affect anyone postmenopausal ( though mostly, it does not occur immediate post menopause) and though some are soon affected and some later( the physician, the best judge, seeks for the test only when she decides the patient needs it; however the point to emphasize is this: the incidence is higher in these group, though as postmenopausal number of years go up, the risk also goes up; of course, there are other Factors which make it faster for some.
Health care expenditures in the United States that are attributed to osteoporotic fractures reach greater than $10 billion annually. Detection of osteoporosis by screening can lead to early treatments that can maintain bone mass, lowering the risk of osteoporotic fractures The Department of Health and Human Services' Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) realized that the physician treating the beneficiary should be afforded flexibility and be given the option of ordering the most appropriate bone mass measurement for a patient in a particular set of circumstances.
With regard to estrogen-replacement therapy (ERT), HCFA recognized the difficulty of trying to define the estrogen-deficient statutory category precisely. Rather than attempting to define the category, HCFA left the determination of whether the patient is estrogen-deficient and at clinical risk of osteoporosis to the treating physician. This risk is calculated based on medical history or other findings.
After all the whole idea is to keep them fit which is their legitimate rights and at the age when they really has to depend incredibly on their OWNSELF, before they encounter an ‘attack'.
Here is my argument:
Well, while the career/payer accepts the screening for routine mammogram for women over 40, an amniocentesis for a pregnant women over 45, WHY NOT FOR POST MENOPAUSAL WOMEN, a screening for osteoporosis(all the more), at the time when the doctor feels she needs it? ( Of course, you know, the doctors are not sitting there fancied and wasting their time to go for screening for “not-in-need” cases. Give them a fair chance to lead a healthy self-dependant life.
Finally what I am trying to drive at is : You emphatically go for the Vcode 82.81 as the primary,on these points for validation: being postmenopausal, asymptomic, the encounter is for screening for osteoporosis and the physician decision and documentation for the order, and above all, not the least, for the coders,our guideline's Principles.
If I were in your shoes, I would do that.
Thank you for your patient listening!