Wow hiker53 You are so fortunate ! Except for the Lyme, of coarse. Did your insurance pay for IV antibiotics ? Do you have a LLMD that takes your insurance ? I m so broke !
Posted by hiker53 (Member # 6046) on :
Thanks for the clarification that this is for chronic Lyme. Hope that code comes soon.
Insurance paid for all my antibiotics (including i.v. antibiotics) and for some portion of the LLMD appointments, but not all of the tests/supplements that were "oddball."
That being said this was in 2004 and since the antibiotics didn't do anything but cause me more harm, I moved on to other treatments that insurance did not cover.
My MD still uses the Lyme diagnosis to renew my handicapped parking placard, but it has to be renewed every 6 months as my state does not recognize chronic Lyme to get a 4 year placard.
Posted by Tincup (Member # 5829) on :
Just so you know, and I didn't till I was at an appointment and the doc said he would have to look up the code- and rolled his eyes (at the big book he was flipping thru- not me) when I came up with the code off the top of my head...
It recently changed. All those years we've been 088.81, like Hiker said.
But, now we are... A69.20
Think I'll have it tattooed on my back side to celebrate!
"Chronic lyme" is not the diagnosis here. No where do they talk about on going infection at all. They actually discount that notion with doublespeak. Any symptoms are not attributed to a chronic infection but the after effects, they say.
Though, after calling it PLDS, they do admit that it can be a:
"Recurrent multisystemic infectious disease"
& "a disease with early and late . . . manifestations . . . "
Saddest parts to this, though, they seem to cancel out a couple of the key words by then discounting any infection connection with continued symptoms
in the error of their calling it PLDS [and the error they state about long term antibiotics.] :
Excerpt:
. . . after treatment, some patients may still have muscle or joint aches and nervous system symptoms. This is called post-lyme disease syndrome (plds). Long-term antibiotics have not been shown to help with plds.
However, there are ways to help with the symptoms of plds, and most patients do get better with time.
* Recurrent multisystemic infectious disease caused by a spirochete, borrelia burgdorferi, which is transmitted chiefly by ixodes ticks;
it is a disease with early and late cutaneous manifestations plus involvement of the nervous system, heart, eye, and joints in variable combinations.
------
For anyone brand new to lyme disease, there are some issues with the official government wording &, indeed, how they see lyme, itself. Be sure to see
[ 06-30-2017, 04:20 PM: Message edited by: Keebler ]
Posted by hiker53 (Member # 6046) on :
Thanks for the update on the code. I will put that in my medical file for later use.
Still wish states would recognize chronic Lyme and give people longer term handicapped parking placards.
My GP hasn't hesitated to fill out the paper work for me every 6 months for the last 13 years, but it would be nice to have one that lasts for 4 years. Guess he needs to come up with a different diagnosis to get me a long term parking placard.
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
Hiker .. that must go by state law. Perhaps you can work to get it changed.
In Missouri, the placards last for 3 years. I think here there doesn't have to be a certain diagnosis, only that you can't ambulate for more than 50 ft at a time.
There are a few other qualifications, I think. I had one back when my feet were so painful.
Posted by TrekCoord (Member # 48888) on :
My Idaho placard is a forever one. Interesting how states differ. . . .
Posted by Razzle (Member # 30398) on :
088.81 is the ICD-9 code for Lyme Disease (acute; chronic is not recognized), which is now obsolete.
ICD-10 is now the accepted standard for medical coding and billing. So now the Lyme Disease (acute) code has been updated to ICD-10 specifications, which means that doctors will use the A69.20 code instead.
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