Are there advantages or disadvantages to using multiple ICD-9 diagnoses?
Is the order of listing important? In my opinion, there neither advantages nor disadvantages of using multiple ICD-9 codes but for sure there is an order of listing in these codes that is extremely important. Your first code many times is the only one that follows everything all the way through. Now, as of a few months ago, Medicare will now accept I believe up to five ICD-9 codes for diagnosis. But of all of these codes, number one, whatever is first in the listing has to be the report of what you found or what you were looking as a result of your evaluation. All the rest of the codes can be other symptoms related to hearing loss and can serve to justify what brought the patient to you. But the first code has to be what you’re going to use as the basis of justification to report your findings and also for billing. Can an audiologist use a medical diagnosis code such as otitis media, if this is what he suspected? No. What we are doing is we are measuring and evaluating function. We are
