Health Information Management

Prepare for ICD-10 with A/P Education

HIM Connection, November 3, 2009

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Capturing an ICD-10 code may require knowledge of very specific details about a diagnosis or procedure that wasn’t necessary under the ICD-9 system.
For example, a coder reporting an angioplasty under ICD-9 must know whether the physician repaired a vessel in the heart or elsewhere to choose the right code. However, in ICD-10, the coder will need to know the specific vessel the physician worked on. The ICD-10-PCS includes more than 1,000 codes for angioplasty, all specified by individual vessels.

Another example is the suturing of an artery. In ICD-9, there is only one code for this procedure—39.31—and it does not require any information on where the artery is located. In ICD-10-PCS, there are 276 codes, specifying in which part of the body the vessel is located.

Note: For more information, visit the HCPro Web site.Subscribers to Briefings on Coding Compliance Strategies have access to this article in the November issue of the newsletter.
 
 



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