RE: Code wound help
I need help coding this scenario
I have a patient that has cellulitis due to and insect bite, can I code thisL03.11 and then S70.372D
Thanks in advance
grace Dr. Grace Alayon DNP, FNP-C, AdmTendra Home Health, Inc.3157 East 4th Ave Hialeah, FL 330138569 Pines BLVD Suite 209 Pembroke Pines, FL 33024Phone 305 696-2323 Fax 305 696-2304Email: tendra_services@yahoo.com This communication including any attachments, may contain confidential information and is intended only for the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. Any review, dissemination, or copying of this communication by anyone other than the intended recipient is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender via email, delete and destroy all copies of the original message.
I have a patient that has cellulitis due to and insect bite, can I code thisL03.11 and then S70.372D
Thanks in advance
grace Dr. Grace Alayon DNP, FNP-C, AdmTendra Home Health, Inc.3157 East 4th Ave Hialeah, FL 330138569 Pines BLVD Suite 209 Pembroke Pines, FL 33024Phone 305 696-2323 Fax 305 696-2304Email: tendra_services@yahoo.com This communication including any attachments, may contain confidential information and is intended only for the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. Any review, dissemination, or copying of this communication by anyone other than the intended recipient is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender via email, delete and destroy all copies of the original message.
Comments
The code you have below, S70.372 tells me your patient has sustained an insect bite on the left thigh. If you know the bite is non-venomous (and I am guessing you would have probably known this very shortly after the bite occurred), you can use a more specific code S70.362.
The 7th character you use depends on whether the bite injury is still present when the cellulitis appears, or after the bite injury has healed. I am assuming the cellulitis appears with the bite injury still present because this makes sense. In that case, the injury is still acute and evolving and being acutely treated with antibiotics and therefore is still considered as being an initial encounter (treatment) and you will use an “A” 7th character. Once the antibiotics have been completed, then the bite wound, if it is ulcerated and needs wound attention, would change in coding to a “D” 7th character, subsequent encounter.
The cellulitis code L03.11 is not a complete/usable code. That code requires 6 characters. L03.11 is a sub-category code for cellulitis of other parts of limbs.
For cellulitis of the left thigh you will need the code L03.116 cellulitis of left lower limb
Hope this helps.
Nancy Wolverton RN, CCM, HCS-D-10
Kindred at Home
Little Rock, Arkansas
501-508-8526
Nancy.Wolverton@kindred.com