SAN DIEGO – A question that arises all the time for physicians who find themselves providing care for a patient with cystic fibrosis–related diabetes is, How do I code for it?
No specific code exists for cystic fibrosis–related diabetes (CFRD), even though it is a unique illness and the most common comorbid condition among patients with CF.
“People use a lot of different codes. I use the type 1 diabetes code, and my personal opinion is that there are good reasons for doing so,” Dr. Antoinette Moran said at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies.
Dr. Antoinette Moran
“For one thing, the patients perform similar tasks as those with type 1 diabetes. They’re taking the same amount of your time and your diabetes educator’s time. But here’s the most important reason: It seems like all around the country, insurance companies are getting more and more restrictive for people who don’t carry a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes. These CFRD patients need to test their blood sugars at least 4 times a day, sometimes 10 times a day. These are patients who do really, really well on insulin pump therapy. We don’t want to be the ones limiting their options just based on what is admittedly an arbitrary code,” explained Dr. Moran, professor of pediatrics and chief of the division of pediatric endocrinology and diabetes at the University of Minnesota – Minneapolis.
She reported financial relationships with Novo Nordisk and Vertex.