Medical Necessity: 3 Steps Focus Diagnosis Coding for Your Surgical Claims

Add these tips to your ICD-9 toolbox.

You won't get paid for your surgeon's work if you only focus on what he did; you also need to focus on why he did it. Choosing the right ICD-9 code tells the "why" story -- and that's the basis for demonstrating medical necessity for the procedure.

Follow our experts' tips to make sure you pick the right ICD-9 code to reflect your surgeon's diagnosis documentation, and to make sure you get paid.

1. Get the Big Picture

The first building block of a well-designed diagnosis coding policy is to adhere to the ICD-9-CM Official Guidelines for Coding [...]

- Published on 2011-11-17