Screenings

[sandyrivet]

We have a child in for a well check visit and the mom mentions that the child is tired sometime. We send out blood work--should it be a diagnosis of tiredness or a screening for anemia, diabetes,or something else? What determines which diagnosis is used and what is the actual defination of a "screening" and the guidelines for charging a screening with a V-code?

 

[Lori Julian]

I would base my decision on what lab work is being ordered. If your provider is ordering a random blood glucose, I would assign V77.1. If your provider is ordering a CBC, I would assign V20.2 or 780.79 (sometimes your lab will drive that decision).

Lori M. Julian, CCS-P
Billing Coordinator
Michigan

 

[mitchellde]

If the lab is ordered due to a symptom then it is not screening it is diagnostic so you would use the symptom. The difference between screen and diagnostic is that a screening implies an asymptomatic patient that meets some predetermined criteria for the screening such as age, gender, ethnicity. It sounds like you have a diagnostic study due to symptoms.