THE CODING EDGE® ARCHIVES

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Procedure Practice 09/15/99 - Feature Article 09/15/99
   

Procedure Practice 09/15/99:
Coding Recommendations

  
Listed below are the ICD-9-CM diagnosis and procedure codes as well as the CPT-4 procedure codes that we think properly classify the treatment described. Please note that modifiers, used only for physician billing purposes, have not been assigned to the CPT-4 codes. If you disagree with our suggestions or have other comments, please send an e-mail to  codingedge@lagunamedsys.com.
   

Suggested Codes and Rationale
   

Diagnosis Codes

This principal diagnosis is AIDS with AIDS-related Pneumocystis carinii. Additional diagnoses include oral candidiasis (thrush), renal failure, metabolic acidosis, normochromic/normocytic anemia of undetermined etiology, and past history of IV cocaine abuse. The correct codes and their narratives are listed below along with the alphabetic index heading under which the codes may be located:

Code Tabular List Narrative Alphabetic Index Heading
042 Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) Infection, HIV, with sypmtoms
136.3 Pneumocystosis Pneumonia, pneumocystic carinii
112.0 Candidiasis of mouth Candidiasis, mouth
586 Renal failure, unspecified Failure, renal
276.2 Acidosis, NOS Acidosis, metabolic NEC
285.9 Anemia, unspecified Anemia, normocytic (infectional) (not due to blood loss)
305.63 Cocaine abuse in remission Abuse, drugs, cocaine

 

Procedure Codes

The patient underwent a diagnostic bronchoscopy with cell washings, a closed (percutaneous) renal biopsy, and a transfusion of 2 units of packed red blood cells. The correct codes, their narratives, and the alphabetic index heading under which the codes are found are:

Code Tabular List Narrative Alphabetic Index Heading
33.24 Closed (endoscoic) biopsy of bronchus Infection, HIV, with sypmtoms
55.23 Closed [percutaneous] [needle] biopsy of kidney Biopsy, kidney, closed
99.04 Transfusion of packed cells Blood, transfusion, packed cells

  

Procedure Practice 09/15/99 - Feature Article 09/15/99
   

Bibliography - References:
Coding Clinic, 4th Quarter, 1994, American Hospital Association, Chicago, IL
St. Anthony’s Illustrated ICD-9-CM Code Book, St. Anthony Publishing, Reston, VA		 Notice: This part of our web site was prepared to assist in understanding and maintaining good coding skills. For proper use of this feature, reference must be made to official coding guidelines when necessary. The information here presented is only to be used as a supplement to those guidelines. Laguna Medical Systems, Inc., makes no representations or guarantees as to amounts that will be paid by Medicare or other third party payers.

 

Please be aware that the Coding Edge® Archive pages are NOT retroactively updated
to reflect possible coding rules and regulation changes made after the publishing date.