use of "pain" diagnosis codes

can someone weigh in on a "debate" in our billing department please - we have billers that will send back notes to the providers because there is not a pain code (joint pain, limb pain) on the superbill. the medical assistant/provider argues that it is not necessary if there is more specific diagnosis. i understood that, if coding a fracture for example, that the pain is inherent to the fracture and you would not code "wrist pain", but would only code the "wrist fracture" but our billing department says that medicare wants/needs the pain code as well. usually i pick my battles, but this just keeps growing. thank you for your input!!!!!

melissa - ortho coder

use of "pain" diagnosis codes