Avoid Common Mistakes
 

Questions for Dr. Stern

About Your Urgent Care Center

46. My question is what ICD-9 code, other than a fussy baby can be used when a parent brings in a child to our Urgent Care Center and examined by our providers when the child is a toddler or older, or the provider can not find anything wrong with the child?

The following ICD-9 codes may be appropriate for some of these visits.  First of all, you may code for the chief complaint, even if the doctor finds nothing on exam:
780.6 fever
780.91 fussy infant
780.92 excessive crying
780.09 drowsiness
As you can see, the 780 series has a wealth of appropriate symptoms to use as codes in these situations. Also, if the patient turns out to truly have no problem what-so-ever, you can use the code:
V75.05 feared complaint, unfounded
However, it is still appropriate to also code for the chief complaint, if possible.I hope that this answers your questions.  Please feel free to contact me with follow up.

 

Return to Question List


Call me today for help with starting your urgent care.

(888) 357-4209


David Stern, MD, CPC
CEO, Practice Velocity
Partner, Physicians Immediate Care
Board Member, Urgent Care      Association of America

Dr. Stern helped design the patent-pending Practice Velocity template (PiVoT) that is now used in over 240 urgent care centers. He is board certified in internal medicine and served as Chief Resident in Internal Medicine at Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Stern received his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University after completing undergraduate studies at Houghton College in Houghton, NY. Dr. Stern serves on the Board of Directors of the Urgent Care Association of America (UCAOA). A Certified Professional Coder, Dr. Stern writes articles and presents at numerous national and regional conferences on topics, including medical charting, emr, medical coding and medical practice management. With additional partners of John Koehler, MD (CEO) and Terry Buzzard, MD (Regional Medical Director), they operate the urgent care consulting firm of National Med Network and the ten clinics (in Illinois and Oklahoma) of Physicians Immediate Care.

 

Search PracticeVelocity.com

Urgent Care Clinic Directory

Why Use Practice Velocity?

Pain-Free

  • Urgent care setup in 2 weeks
  • Simple Internet access
  • No retrofit for urgent care

Peace-of-Mind

  • Checklist urgent care coding
  • Compliant urgent care codes

Profitability

  • Get paid for what you do
  • Increase urgent care revenue
  • More center patients per hour