Final answer:
Outpatient coders primarily focus on the ICD-10-CM for diagnostic coding and the CPT for procedural coding. ICD codes are important for various aspects of healthcare, such as laboratory test ordering, treatment prescribing, and keeping vital records. Two common places for ICD codes are medical laboratory records and death certificates.
Step-by-step explanation:
Outpatient coders focus on learning a variety of coding manuals to accurately record patient procedures and diagnoses. The manuals they use include the ICD-10-CM (International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification) and the CPT (Current Procedural Terminology). The ICD-10-CM is utilized for diagnosing coding, while CPT codes are used to describe medical, surgical, and diagnostic services. In regards to the question, the correct answer is (a) ICD-10-CM and CPT.
To exemplify the use of these codes, when a patient seeks treatment for a viral infection, the medical team will use an ICD code to detail the presumed virus for laboratory tests or treatments. Subsequently, medical coders assign the appropriate ICD code for the procedures performed, which is crucial for medical billers to process insurance claims. Furthermore, ICD codes are prevalent in vital records keeping and are used by epidemiologists for morbidity and mortality statistics.
Therefore, two locations where one would likely find an ICD code are in medical laboratory records for confirming diagnoses and on death certificates to record the cause of death.