Chief, main, and principal are some of the synonyms for primary.
The procedure performed for definitive treatment of the principal diagnosis is called the _____________ procedure
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Jeff Bruce is the principal of Jean Batten Primary
Swelling of limbs of one of the symptoms not the principal diagnosis in insurance. It various from one disease to other and empanelled Medical Persons diagnose the principal reason for illness/disease, considering the gravity of the situation.
IPPS
The Primary Diagnosis is an outdated term in outpatient settings. The term was changed to First-listed Diagnosis some years ago, and it is the main condition treated or investigated during the relevant episode of outpatient (ambulatory) health care. Where there is no definitive diagnosis, the main symptom or sign, abnormal findings, or problem is reported as the first-listed diagnosis. The first-listed diagnosis is reported by physician offices, ambulatory care centers, outpatient hospital settings, and so on.In an inpatient setting, the term "Primary Diagnosis" is still used to reference the condition that was the most serious and/or resource intensive during that hospitalization.The "Principal Diagnosis" (PDX) for inpatient care is defined as that condition established after study to be chiefly responsible for occasioning the admission of the patient to the hospital for care. An important part of the definition above is the phrase "after study," which directs coders to review all patient record documentation associated with an inpatient hospitalization to determine the definitive clinical condition that was the documented reason for the admission. For example, rather than listing the symptom or differential diagnoses available before the work up, the PDX should be what the studies determined was the cause of the symptom. For example the symptom of chest pain that could be either due to pneumonia or due to a heart attack would not be assigned as the PDX unless what caused the chest pain could not be determined prior to discharge. If it were determined to be caused by a heart attack, then that would be the PDX.Another example of the difference between Primary and Principal diagnoses in inpatient coding is a patient admitted to the hospital for a surgical procedure such as gallbladder surgery and then, in the post operative period, suffers a heart attack: The primary diagnosis would be the heart attack because it will require more services, more consultations, more medications, etc., and a longer hospital confinement and is also more serious than the gallbladder. However, the principal diagnosis would be the problem with the gallbladder since that is what originally brought the patient into the hospital for care and the heart attack would be listed as a relevant secondary diagnosis.Different health care insurers (including Medicare in the US) use the Principal Diagnosis designation along with the secondary diagnoses (that have bearing on the care during the hospitalization) and the significant surgical procedures performed to create a grouping called a DRG (Diagnosis Related Group). The DRG can be used in prospective payment systems (PPS) to establish reimbursement. In this use, the principal diagnosis is critical to the assignment of the appropriate DRG, and therefore to proper payment and reporting.The definitions and guidelines used to arrive at the proper principal diagnosis (PDX) and DRG have been established by CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services). The Uniform Hospital Discharge Data Set (UHDDS) defines the selection and use of the elements such as the PDX in the establishment of a DRG. This is to allow standardized reporting, as well as for use in reimbursement contracting.There are also codes for codifying each diagnosis and procedure, called ICD-9-CM or ICD-10-CM codes (International Classification of Diseases, 9th or 10th revision, Clinical Modification) that are based on the World Health Organization's official ICD-9 classification of morbidity and mortality reporting codes. An ICD diagnosis code is assigned to each of the diagnoses related to an episode of care and to each procedure. It is the combination of these codes that are grouped to make a DRG with the principal diagnosis driving the DRG (although sometimes it can be driven by the procedure).See also the related question below.
Primary diagnosis
Jennifer R. Jamison has written: 'Differential Diagnosis for Primary Care' 'Diagnostic decision making in clinical practice' -- subject(s): Decision making, Diagnosis 'Maintaining Health in Primary Care' -- subject(s): Health education, Health promotion, Primary care (Medicine) 'Differential diagnosis for primary practice' -- subject(s): Diagnosis, Differential, Diagnostic Techniques and Procedures, Differential Diagnosis, Primary Health Care
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The Principal Diagnosis is defined as the condition established after study to be chiefly responsible for admission of the patient to the hospital.In the reimbursement of hospitals by insurance companies and Medicare, the amount of contracted payments are sometimes determined using a reimbursement scheme called DRG payments. A DRG (Diagnosis Related Group) is a grouping of all the conditions that were treated while a person was hospitalized along with any surgeries they may have had. This is grouped using standardized diagnosis and procedure codes (called ICD-9-CM, which stands for International Classification of Diseases, ninth revision, Clinical Modification).One of the most important parts of the DRG classification and assignment is the Principal Diagnosis, since the DRG grouping (and therefore the payment) is primarily determined by that diagnosis that was the reason the patient went into the hospital. There are very specific guidelines on how that diagnosis is determined to be the principal one based upon the doctor's documentation in the medical record.Here is a simple example of a Principal Diagnosisselection:A woman is taken to the emergency room for very severe abdominal pain with nausea and vomiting. She is admitted to the hospital to determine the cause of the symptoms and for treatment. They do studies and find that she has gallstones. She has surgery to remove the gallstones. After the surgery she recovers and is sent home. By the definition above, the Principal Diagnosis in her case is going to be Cholelithiasis (gallstones) since, after study and after surgery, her abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting were determined to have been due to the gallstones.So, although she had initial symptoms of nausea and vomiting and abdominal pain, none of them are the Principal Diagnosis. They would be considered the Admitting Diagnoses. After study it was determined that the condition that made her sick and caused her to need to be in the hospital was the gallstones.To take the example one step further, if after she had the surgery, she was unfortunate enough to have a heart attack while in the hospital, even though it is a more serious condition and it causes her to stay much longer in the hospital, her insurance payment will still be based on the DRG related to the Principal Diagnosis of gallstones since it was what initially got her admitted. The heart attack would be a Secondary Diagnosisand it would affect a higher payment.But the Principal Diagnosis doesn't get changed from the condition that, after study, was determined to have caused her to go into the hospital in the first place (gallstones). In some cases, the heart attack would be called a Primary Diagnosissince it was the most serious and resource intensive condition. However, the Principal Diagnosis doesn't change even if there is a Secondary Diagnosis added that is considered a more serious Primary Diagnosis.
No; an E code can never be used as a principal diagnosis code, because E codes are supplementary classification codes that describe causes of injury, poisoning, or other adverse reactions affecting a patient's health.