Medical and Treatment Diagnoses for Therapy

It's always difficult to zero in on an appropriate medical diagnosis and then to produce an accurate treatment diagnosis during your evaluation for therapy.  Common medical diagnoses errors involve codes like UTI.  A simple UTI is curable with antibiotics and rest for a few days.  When a UTI lands a patient in the hospital and then in a SNF for therapy - that goes beyond a simple UTI.  There is an underlying problem that was made worse by the infection resulting in his/her need for therapy.  An underlying problem may be anything like COPD, CHF, arthritis, Parkinson's, Dementia, diabetes, malnutrition, etc.  The average person doesn't contract a UTI and then end up in a SNF to get therapy so he/she can go back home.  Find the underlying condition and code it appropriately to assure you don't get a denial on your billing.