Health Information Management

Tip: Reporting vascular dementia in ICD-10-CM

APCs Insider, April 10, 2015

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Vascular dementia is caused by impaired blood flow to the brain, which damages the brain's blood vessels. The condition is the second most common form of dementia following Alzheimer's disease, according to the National Institute on Aging, and has similar symptoms. Alzheimer's and vascular dementia can also occur at the same time.
 
In ICD-9-CM, coders have four options for reporting vascular dementia. However, in ICD-10-CM, they will have two:
  • F01.50, vascular dementia without behavioral disturbance
  • F01.51, vascular dementia with behavioral disturbance
The ICD-10-CM category also includes an important note instructing coders to first report the underlying physiological condition or sequelae of cerebrovascular disease for patients with vascular dementia.
 
In addition, code F01.51 includes a note to use an additional code, if applicable, to identify wandering in vascular dementia (Z91.83).
 
This tip is adapted from “Reporting mental disorders in ICD-10-CM" in the April issue of Briefings on APCs.



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