Ob-gyn Coding Challenge: EM End-Result Tells You What ICD Code To Go For

Check out these ICD-10 ob-gyn diagnosis coding equivalents.

Question: A patient presented for an initial OB visit. Another clinic confirmed her pregnancy, but she has never received prenatal care. The patient got her usual initial OB service (i.e. lab orders), Pap smear, and chlamydia trachomatis (CT)/neisseria gonorrhoeae (GC) screening. After discussing some concerns with the patient, the ob-gyn ordered another pregnancy test which came out negative. He ordered an ultrasound (US) which showed no intrauterine pregnancy. The ob-gyn noted bilateral polycystic ovaries, however. In short, the office completed the initial OB visit prior to knowledge of a negative pregnancy test (given the confirmation documentation of a positive pregnancy test). I’m not sure whether to bill it as an initial or an office visit. What code should I use for the first diagnosis?

California Subscriber

Answer: Your clue is to code what you know at the end of the visit. Since the patient was not pregnant, you should report …

… an outpatient E/M visit (99201-99205, Office or other outpatient visit for the evaluation and management of a new patient …; 99212-99215, Office or other outpatient visit for the evaluation and management of an established patient …). As it turned out, you were not providing global OB care nor were you supervising a pregnancy after all.

Your final diagnosis should be 256.4 (Polycystic ovaries) with V72.41 (Pregnancy examination or test, negative result). According to the CPT Assistant, you would code the ultrasound as an OB ultrasound (76805-76815). Therefore, you should link the ultrasound to V72.41. Here’s what the guideline states:

“For a patient with an established diagnosis of pregnancy (determined by any means), with signs and symptoms that could be pregnancy related and necessitating an ultrasound evaluation of the pelvis, the obstetrical ultrasound code(s) 76805-76815 should be reported, even if the outcome of the procedure is that the patient is now not pregnant or has an ultrasonic diagnosis that might be construed as being independent of the pregnancy (e.g., acute appendicitis, torsed ovary, necrotic fibroid).”

ICD-10: Your new ICD-10 system will list 256.4 as E28.2 (Polycystic ovarian syndrome). V72.41 will be replaced by Z32.02 (Encounter for pregnancy test, result negative).

@ Ob-gyn Coding Alert

AUDIO: Ob-Gyn Anatomy 101 for coders. With Jan Rasmussen, CPC, ACS-GI, ACS-OB.

Be a hero. Join the coding community at Supercoder Fan Page.

Share:

More Posts

ICD-10 Data: Does It Matter?

It is often argued that ICD-10 coding does nothing for the patient. Recently that point was made at the U.S. House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Health hearing “Examining ICD-10 Implementation” last week.

Read More »