tube feeding coding question

[glm777, BSN, RN]

Our resident has a feeding tube that is not used for feeding or nutrition at this time. The resident eats well PO and the tube is only flushed every shift. Our RD thinks we should be coding the tube in K0500B. The manual kind of contradicts itself - the definition of a feeding tube states: "presence of any type of tube that CAN deliver food..."

but further on, the manual says that you should code in K0500 "any and all nutrition and hydration received...provided they were administered for nutrition or hydration"

The tube is flushed soley to maintain it's patency. Should I code it in K0500B?

[Talino]

The tube is flushed soley to maintain it's patency. Should I code it in K0500B?

If not used for the purpose of "nutritional approaches" - NO, as with the IV fluid used for IV meds only; nor the mechanically altered or therapeutic diets if resident was NPO in the 7-day lookback period.