Diagnosis: Intractable Hiccups
Treatment: Inpatient Hospital Admission
The insurer denied: Inpatient Hospital Admission
The denial is upheld.

This patient is an adult male who presented with shortness of breath due to intractable hiccups. This started after the patient had surgery for his abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). The
hiccups started during the hospital stay for his abdominal aortic aneurysm repair and he was discharged with hiccups. The patient had tried home remedies without any relief. On the next day, the patient had no acute events overnight. The patient had hiccups that had lessened in severity. His breathing felt better but was starting to come back again. The patient was discharged on day #3 and was without hiccups in the morning.

The proposed treatment was not medically necessary.

Inpatient hospital admission was not medically necessary since the patient did not require any procedural or surgical intervention, did not require to be nothing by mouth for a prolonged duration of time, and did not require prolonged treatment with intravenous hydration or intravenous medications. In addition, the patient did not have acute kidney injury, did not have electrolyte derangement needing intravenous replacement, did not have fevers, did not have an elevated white count, and did not have any complications such as intra-abdominal abscess or a surgical abdomen.