Malnutrition and coding the severity

If a Provider diagnosed the patient with "Malnutrition" and ordered a nutritional consult, can you code the severity based on the nutritionist's diagnosis or would you still have to query the provider? This would be like coding the stage of a documented pressure ulcer based on the nursing note.

Comments

  • I'm not sure about any official guidance on this, personally I send a quick yes/no query to the physician stating the RD's nutritional diagnosis and ask if they agree. 
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