Health Information Management

News: ICD-9-CM code updates available

CDI Strategies, June 24, 2010

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The new, revised, and deleted ICD-9-CM codes, effective October 1, 2010, are now out. You can find them in a zip file on the CMS website, here: https://www.cms.gov/ICD9ProviderDiagnosticCodes/07_summarytables.asp#TopOfPage

To access the list of initial changes made to the ICD-9 codes, click on the file at the top that says effective 6/10/2010. (Note that the effective date is incorrect: They're actually effective as of October 1, 2010).
The following is a link to the addenda to the index and tabular listing of the codes (scroll to bottom):
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/icd/icd9cm_addenda_guidelines.htm. Note that  further changes (e.g., errata) may appear on this page.
 
Eventually, these changes will be packaged into a set of final files here: https://www.cms.gov/ICD9ProviderDiagnosticCodes/06_codes.asp#TopOfPage.
 
The IPPS proposed rule identifies whether certain new diagnoses will be considered CC or MCCs, says Shannon McCall, RHIA, CCS, CCS-P, CPC, CPC-I, CCDS, director of HIM and coding for HCPro Inc., in Marblehead, MA.
 
Most of the new codes were CCs before, but CMS is adding specificity in some cases by adding a fifth digit, McCall says.  For example, Hemoptysis code 786.3 is currently a CC condition, but effective October 1 it gets a fifth digit: 786.30-786.31, and 786.39 (Other hemoptysis). Similarly 999.6 (ABO incompatibility reaction) and 999.7 (Rh incompatibility reaction) are CC conditions which will also receive a fifth digit.
 
The added specificity for the fifth digit in the V85.4x series may be an opportunity for more specific BMIs to be reported, McCalls says.
 
“Currently the code V85.4 just says 40+.  The additional specificity can identify more specific ranges above 40,” she says.



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