• Register to Access the Free Forums and 3 Free CEUs!

    To view the content for the 3 free CEUs, please sign up today.

    CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
  • Missing Access To A Course, Blitz or Exam? Have Technical Issues? Open a Help Desk Ticket
    Please Do Not Post in the Community About Access or Technical Issues
    CCO Business Hours for Help Desk and Coaching: Mon-Fri 9am-4pm Eastern

When there is a current malignancy with a personal history of another type of malignancy do we code the current one as secondary?

Status
Not open for further replies.

CCO_Admin

Administrator
Staff member
CCO Admin asked:

Good evening;
When there is a current malignancy with a personal history of another type of malignancy do we code the current one as secondary?

Example: Initial encounter for spontaneous Fracture of left humerus due to metastatic bone cancer; history of cancer of the breast previously excised.
Answer: M84.522A; C79.51; Z85.3

The bone cancer is coded as Malignant Secondary.

Answer:

For testing purpose what they want to know is if you:

1). Know this is a pathological fx.

2). You need to code the Cancer and where to sequence it; after the fx code.

3). Last; to code the Cancer as secondary.

In the real world a heads up. That is not enough information to tell you if in fact that is not a new primary Ca or secondary Ca. Also; history of does not mean the same thing in the real world in provider language as it does to us as coders. Therefore you will want to do more research in the documentation that there is no longer any primary breast cancer. I do not want to confuse you but want to give you a heads up.

For the course and testing you nailed it!!!!
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top