Hi. I'm new to coding. An issue came up today in which a patient questioned our billing department about her pap. Since she had a wellness exam, her pap should not have been billed by our path lab as diagnostic. My job involves coding just the paps read by the pathologist: 88141.
Looking into the patient's history, we saw that she had a colpo and then a LEEP in 12/10, both of which showed 233.1. The patient did not return again for another exam until January of 2012. This pap was read by a pathologist as 795.09. I originally coded 88141 and 233.1 since the patient was still in a typical 2-year follow-up period for an abnormal pap, thus making this pap diagnostic. (My boss concurs with this.) I called the office that did the pap and they said that since she was due for her wellness exam, they considered this a screening pap. If this was the case, I would code V72.31 and 795.09.
Which is correct? Is the pap of January 2012 screening with the codes 88141, V72.31, 795.09 or diagnostic with the codes 88141, 233.1?
Thanks!
Looking into the patient's history, we saw that she had a colpo and then a LEEP in 12/10, both of which showed 233.1. The patient did not return again for another exam until January of 2012. This pap was read by a pathologist as 795.09. I originally coded 88141 and 233.1 since the patient was still in a typical 2-year follow-up period for an abnormal pap, thus making this pap diagnostic. (My boss concurs with this.) I called the office that did the pap and they said that since she was due for her wellness exam, they considered this a screening pap. If this was the case, I would code V72.31 and 795.09.
Which is correct? Is the pap of January 2012 screening with the codes 88141, V72.31, 795.09 or diagnostic with the codes 88141, 233.1?
Thanks!