This a general question. In a case were the Dr. documents "Diabetes Type 2 with other circulatory complications" and the patient actively has CAD (which is a circulatory system issue) as well, but the Dr. does not specifically say that the CAD is the diabetic complication. Is it ok to accept the code of "Diabetes Type 2 with other circulatory complications" or should it be down coded to just "Diabetes Type 2" since the Dr. didn’t specifically state that the CAD was the complication?

A co-worker and I going over this issue. I stated that I would code it as "Diabetes Type 2 with other circulatory complications". He stated that he would down code it to "Diabetes Type 2" since the Dr. didn’t specifically note that the CAD was the circulatory complication.