When to Provide Family and PH V Codes

With all of the various codes that make up medical coding, it can be confusing when you’re separating out closely related codes to find the best fit for your medical billing claim. One situation is when it comes to figuring out the difference between both personal and family history V codes. Basically, what you need to remember is that the V codes are there to help give a window into past patient history. If there is an ongoing medical condition, the V codes can be used to tell the tale.

When looking into personal history, you can find out more about any prior procedures, hospitalizations and operations, as well as any previous illnesses and injuries that the patient has endured. This can help to show the physician to easily see that there may have been occurrences in the past that could have an effect on the current diagnosis. Such codes can help to make diagnosis much quicker and easier for all of those involved.

As far as family history goes, these codes are made to help to report any possible problems that may run within their family that can attribute to their current illness or symptoms. These codes may tell whether or not certain family members have died due to certain illnesses or diseases as well as tell the physician if there seems to be anything that the patient may be at risk of contracting later on in life. When it comes to these codes, it is easy to see just how valuable they can be when it comes to being able to pinpoint certain problems while being able to rule out others that are not relevant to the patient’s family history.

View all Articles by: Kathryn Etienne, CCS-P