MAY 07, 2024
Does Glaucoma in Each Eye Count as Multiple Chronic Illnesses?
When a patient has a different stage of glaucoma in each eye, would that count as two chronic illnesses?
Answer:
No. Glaucoma is a single chronic illness that can present in different stages for each eye. The complexity of the problem depends on how the illness is assessed during the encounter. If stable in both eyes, it would be a low complexity problem, or one stable chronic illness. If one eye showed progression it would meet a moderate-level problem as one or more chronic illnesses with progression.
Academy resources for E/M medical decision making can be found at aao.org/em