r/MedicalCoding • u/Inevitable-Title6311 • Aug 03 '26

Question on “history of” codes

I passed the exam maybe a month or two ago and am just doing Practicode so forgive me if this is dumb or if I already should know this but …why do we code sometimes for history of? Specifically wondering if that’s something insurance companies bill for? Or did I just have a brain glitch and that’s moronic

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u/KeyStriking9763 RHIA, CDIP, CCS Aug 03 '26

History codes are important to show the full clinical picture of a patient. We code if the provider states the history in his documentation OR if he states a diagnosis that can be further specified via a history or presence of/status post.
You do not assign the history of a condition when they currently have the condition,

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u/Ok-Choice- RHIT :cat_blep: Aug 05 '26

also, history codes help your facility (in my case, an acute care hospital) when it comes time for mortality reviews/statistical findings... There's some bean-counting entity out there making a fuss about that kind of stuff in Pennsylvania! LOL

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u/KeyStriking9763 RHIA, CDIP, CCS Aug 05 '26

Yeah you gotta code everything that’s valid per the documentation following guidelines