Hello All,
I am fairly new to Dermatology coding. We do a lot of treatment and prescribing of biologics for psoriasis. These are powerful drugs that can affect the organ systems negatively; therefore baseline laboratory tests are required prior to starting the patient on these medications. AFTER the patient has been on these meds, we continue to run lab tests to monitor if/how these medications are affecting the organ systems. Z79.899 usually works for monitoring (there are a few NCD/LCDs that do not cover with this code), but I’m wondering what ICD-10 code should be used for the initial baseline lab testing? We are not monitoring the patient’s response to the medicine since they aren’t on it yet, but simply getting a baseline. Many of these lab tests have NCDs and we’re having trouble finding appropriate diagnosis codes? Thoughts anyone?
I am fairly new to Dermatology coding. We do a lot of treatment and prescribing of biologics for psoriasis. These are powerful drugs that can affect the organ systems negatively; therefore baseline laboratory tests are required prior to starting the patient on these medications. AFTER the patient has been on these meds, we continue to run lab tests to monitor if/how these medications are affecting the organ systems. Z79.899 usually works for monitoring (there are a few NCD/LCDs that do not cover with this code), but I’m wondering what ICD-10 code should be used for the initial baseline lab testing? We are not monitoring the patient’s response to the medicine since they aren’t on it yet, but simply getting a baseline. Many of these lab tests have NCDs and we’re having trouble finding appropriate diagnosis codes? Thoughts anyone?