Preventive care: Reporting the heart of health care for wellness

Why This Topic Matters

Preventive services are common, but they often require careful alignment between the reason for the visit and the service performed. This article helps readers understand the broad categories of coding guidance involved so they can better evaluate preventive care claims and documentation.

Article Sections

1. Coding

   Introduces preventive care as a broad service category and describes the general role of screening, immunization, and wellness-related encounters.

2. Identify ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes

   Discusses diagnosis coding considerations for preventive encounters and points to general documentation concepts used to support code selection in ICD-10-CM.

3. Check on CPT procedure codes

   Explains the relationship between the reason for an encounter and the procedure reported, including general distinctions between screening and diagnostic services.