a few coding questions

1) when the diagnoses on a lab order include common symptoms of a condition, say the diagnoses for a lab order are "dyspnea, CHF, gout" or "fatigue, hypothyroidism" do you code the symptoms? or just the conditions?

2) if the dx on a path report is "mild cervical dysplasia with HPV effect (CIN I)" do you code the dysplasia and the virus code?

3) if i'm coding just for a chlamydia/GC lab and the dx just says "well adult exam" can I go ahead and code the screenings? again I am not coding the physician visit, I'm just coding the lab charge. or is it a leap to code the screening codes when the doc just says well adult exam?

i'm new to coding, and any help is greatly appreciated :)

re: a few coding questions

1. If the definitive dx/condition covers the necessity for the lab, (Ex: TSH T4 T3 lab dx Hypothyroidism) you would code the definitive dx.

If the definitive dx/condition is Hypothyroidism and your lab is for CMP, or SED Rate but you have symptoms of Joint Pain, Edema then you would code the symptom.

2. I code both.

3. Well adult exam's have always confused me. I'd be interested in hearing others point of view on this. I code the screening...