Medical Coding Viral Syndrome and Bronchitis

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Laureen: Q-30: I am ER coder, and the MD’s frequently provide a final diagnosis of viral syndrome, and bronchitis. Would both conditions be coded?

Medical Coding Viral Syndrome and Bronchitis – Video

A: Well, basically, what you have to figure out is one considered bundled, or symptom of the other, in this case I don’t… I would say no. Right, Alicia, which, I would code both.

Alicia: Bronchitis doesn’t tell you to…because it’s an inflammation. Viral syndrome, they may want to know what the virus is, and if it is, then you could code that. But, yeah, you can code both of those, because a viral syndrome and bronchitis are two separate things. So, viral syndrome, there’s a code for that – and she’s got it there — but that’s also an unspecified code, so that’s not necessarily a good thing to do an unspecified. They want to know what type of viral things going on, viral syndrome is catch-all.

Laureen: Catch-all. Yeah. Jinx.

Alicia: Yeah, but it’s okay to put them both in there.

Laureen: And you know, so the rule of thumb is like the patient has sore throat and strep throat, you don’t code both because the sore throat is part of strep throat. But when it’s questionable, you’re not sure, my rule of thumb is go ahead and code both because it’s documented.

Alicia: That’s right.