Guided Notes

Pharmacology Basics for Coders

Drug classes, routes of administration, and how medications show up in coding — long-term drug use Z codes, adverse effects vs poisoning, and drug billing.

Why coders need pharmacology

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Medications appear everywhere in coding: • The medication list tells you which chronic conditions are being treated (metformin → diabetes; levothyroxine → hypothyroidism). • Long-term drug use has its own ICD-10-CM codes (Z79.-). • Drug reactions are coded differently depending on whether the drug was taken correctly (adverse effect) or not (poisoning, underdosing). • Injected drugs are billed with HCPCS J codes and units.

You don't need to prescribe — you need to recognize.

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