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tci Part B Insider - 2010 Issue 13
READER QUESTION: Base Diagnosis Coding for Bruises on the Patient's Symptoms
Look for the cause of the bruising before you select the appropriate ICD-9 code from your manual.
Question: The only information related to diagnosis we have for one of our new patients is that he bruises easily, sometimes with no apparent reason. Tests have yet to confirm something more definitive as the reason for the bruising. Which ICD- 9 code should I report?
Answer: Because the physician has yet to identify a specific disease, you'll need to report the patient's symptoms.
For easy bruising with no identifiable cause, consider 782.7 (Spontaneous ecchymoses). An ecchymosis is a bruise larger...
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