Scenario:
A twenty-five year old woman who is 34 weeks pregnant is admitted for mild pre-eclampsia. Treatment for pre-eclampsia is successful but during course of the admission the patient develops other pregnancy complications including thrombocytopenia, oligohydramnios and painful diastasis recti. Determination is made that for the safety of the patient and the baby, delivery must take place. The patient is induced with Cervidil and the baby is delivered at 35 weeks. The physician lists preterm labor as one of the discharge diagnoses.
Here are my thoughts…
Since Mom delivered at 35 weeks, is it appropriate to code 644.21, Early onset of delivery, delivered with or without mention of antepartum condition?
According to Coding Clinic 3rd Quarter 2011, p. 3 it would not be appropriate to assign 644.21 as an additional code because the labor was induced. The coding advice was further clarified and confirmed with the recent 2nd Quarter 2013 Coding Clinic, p. 27 that pre-term labor code 644.2x is to be used only to describe spontaneous early labor.
What are your thoughts?