Wiki Secondary Code F06 - Psychologist

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Hi! I want to ask what diagnosis code can we use as primary if the patient comes for psychotherapy for anxiety or depression due to a physical chronic condition (cancer, parkinson, alzheimer, dementia, etc) (for ex. F06.4 (secondary code) -Anxiety disorder due to known physiological condition). We need to code first the physiological condition. Knowing the guidelines of the advantage coverage or medicare, a psychologist can't diagnose a patient with a chronic condition, just because the patient says so, there is no evidence of the diagnosis or treatment on the medical record. I hope you can help me with this thread.
 
if your provider has no evidence or knowledge of a primary physiologic cause for the anxiety, then it seems to me that they should be using a different code for the anxiety.
Why are they wanting to use F06.x?
Thanks for the response. I believe that the provider wants to use it because the patient is saying that the symptoms started after being diagnosed with a chronic condition. I understand that the provider should be queried and oriented that if there is no evidence of the physiologic condition on the medical record, then it should be using another type of code for the condition.
 
It's my understanding of the codes that the F06 category is used for a mental disorder that is actually caused by a physical condition, not simply a patient's mental or emotional reaction to having that physical condition. Examples are things such as traumatic brain injuries or dementia, which can include such things as anxiety and depression as symptoms of the underlying physical condition. That's different from a case where a patient is depressed or anxious because of their diagnosis - the cancer, for example, isn't physically causing the depression, but rather the depression is an adjustment reaction to the fact of having cancer. So I would not use F06 for this situation.
 
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