Wiki Symptoms associated with final diagnosis codes

ggparker14

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When a patient comes in with a symptom such as nausea and vomiting and the doctor diagnoses the patient with (ex pancreatitis), should the diagnosis on the claim be only pancreatitis as documented by the doctor or the reason the patient came in which was the nausea and vomiting followed by pancreatitis. The nausea and vomiting are symptoms of pancreatitis and per the guidelines, they can be coded if no confirmed diagnosis is documented.Or should the reason for the visit of nausea and vomiting followed by the confirmed diagnosis of pancreatitis be coded? This always confuses me when the symptom the patient presents with is a part of the confirmed diagnosis.
 
Orthocoderpgu:

How about this scenario:

-Patient seen in urgent care for symptoms such as cough and runny nose.

-Provider does covid test and flu test.

-Provider final diagnosis is Covid.

For the covid test, I will attach the U07.1 because that was the reason for the test.

The signs and symptoms are usually listed instead of a final diagnosis, but in this case attaching U07.1 to the flu test does not seem like the right thing to.


If I list the signs and symptoms, those are encompassed in the final dx of covid, which in correct coding we shouldn't be attaching signs and symptoms if we have another diagnosis encompassing that dx.

Would you use a screening code for the flu test?


Your thoughts?
Cough and runny nose are common symptoms of the flu, so I would use those rather than screening. : )
 
If the dr diagnoses patient at that visit then you DO NOT code the signs and symptoms. Code ONLY pancreatitis. If any additional symptoms occur, that are not part of the pancreatitis, then you code those in addition as well.
 
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