Medical Combination Code: What Is It?

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Medical Combination Code What Is It?
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• Naturally, there are plenty of different
  challenges that come with running a medical
  practice, but one of the biggest ones is
  definitely medical coding especially when
  youre a small practice, and every possible claim
  denial comes with a serious knock to your cash
  flow and overall ability to tend to
  your patients.
• So, over the course of this article, well be
  taking a look at what combination codes are as
  theyre a major part of medical coding
  exploring things like diagnosis codes and why
  its generally really important to have
  a specialized medical coding and billing
  department to handle them.

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Understanding Combination Codes and Diagnosis
Codes

• Kicking things off, lets provide a little bit of
  background into what medical coding actually is.
  Fundamentally, this is more or less just
  converting medical procedures and diagnoses
  (whether theyre simple or slightly more complex)
  into a universally recognized code thats
  recognized by your patients insurance company.
• Generally speaking, there are actually quite a
  few different coding systems, but the main one is
  the International Classification of Diseases
  (ICD) code specifically, and the most widely
  used version of this, well be talking about
  ICD-10, which the World Health Organization
  recommends all kinds of medical practice use.

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The Role of Diagnosis Codes

• Put simply, all of the diagnosis codes that make
  up the ICD system represent a different part of
  any given patients diagnosis, which is generally
  crucial for a few different things not least
  handling insurance claims, tracking patient
  health status, and even just you, as a healthcare
  provider, are going to be properly paid for all
  of the services youve provided.
• Furthermore, to go back to what we mentioned
  earlier, these codes are universal meaning
  theyre essentially the kind of language thats
  used when healthcare professionals, insurance
  companies, and

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• other kinds of stakeholders in the healthcare
  industry are communicating with each other.
• Having said all of this, there can still be
  situations where one single code isnt fully
  sufficient when describing a patients condition
  properly, so this is where whats known as
  combination codes come into play.
• Combination Codes The Essence
• In essence, combination codes are a specific type
  of code thats used in the ICD-10 system so that
  healthcare providers are able to represent two
  separate diagnoses within a single code.

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• Naturally, these codes end up playing a fairly
  big role when you need to show all the different
  factors influencing health status of your
  patients especially when there is an associated
  complication or secondary process/secondary code.
• This might be a little awkward to visualize, so
  as an example, think of one of your patients
  coming in and you discover something abnormal in
  their native coronary artery, for instance. From
  here, The ICD-10 would basically allow for a
  combination code so youre able to show both the
  fact that youve found something abnormal as well
  as the particular diagnosis ultimately leading
  to a much more comprehensive overview of their
  condition.

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Why Outsource Your Medical Billing and Coding
Services to PMN

• As healthcare physician, you might be wondering
  if you and your physicians are able to deal with
  these combination codes by yourself, but its
  generally not so simple when youre working with
  limited staff and resources.
• So, to round off the article, lets take a look
  at why its generally recommended that you
  partner with a professional medical billing and
  coding service like PMN instead

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• Expertise and Efficiency
• Put simply, PMN has been helping small practices
  like yours for over 20 years, so all of your
  medical records are going to be in the hands
  of seasoned professionals with plenty of
  different specialties particularly when it
  comes to working with the ICD-10 coding system
  and combination codes.
• Staying Current with Coding Updates
• Generally speaking, the ICD-10 is a pretty
  dynamic system that gets updated with new codes
  fairly frequently, so PMN can be a great help
  with staying up to date with all the latest
  coding changes and implementing them in your
  practice.

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• Clinical Documentation Excellence
• Accurate diagnostic coding relies pretty heavily
  on clinical documentation, which is something the
  team at PMN is well-versed in especially when
  it comes to aligning it with ICD-10 criteria so
  that the amount of errors you have are massively
  minimized.
• Focus on Patient Care
• Lastly, once you delegate a good chunk of the
  coding and billing PMN, you and your staff are
  ultimately going to be able to devote a lot more
  time and energy to providing quality health
  services to all of your patients.