Yes, another question about colonoscopies! If a patient is sent for a screening colonoscopy and the provider finds out during the H&P that the pt had diarrhea or a change in bowel movements, do those diags have to be listed on the report? The provider has said that it doesn't change the fact that he's doing a colorectal cancer screening, not a diagnostic colonoscopy for the incidental history. On the other hand, he lists them on the report along with the screening diags so of course when others code it, the screening code gets dropped. Is this just a case where I should tell him to drop the diags if they're not the reason for the colonoscopy? This issue really plays havoc with our billing team because if it gets coded as a diagnostic, patients may not get their full benefits from their insurance company. I don't want to manipulate my coding to get paid, but I do want to make sure we aren't unintentionally shortchanging the patients out of their benefits if these would be true screenings, even with incidental issues. Thanks for any thoughts on this issue,
Sue
Sue