# Alcohol dependence in remission vs. personal history of alcoholism



## jasmine.stone (Aug 23, 2012)

What do the members of the coding community have to say about when to use 303.93 alcohol dependence in remission, and V11.3 personal history of alcoholism?

Thank you!


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## Manas maity (Aug 24, 2012)

Code V11.3 is used if a person has completly stopped consumption of alcohol for many years or months. Wherelse 303.93 is used if a person who was previously having continuous alcohol intake but now has decreased the alcohol intake till complete Cessation. In general these codes are often seen in rehabilitation centres.
The designation of the pattern of drug or alcohol use/dependence requires the provider's clinical judgment. The pattern of use (e.g., continuous, episodic, or in remission) is assigned only on the basis of provider documentation (as defined in the Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting). 

Thanks


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## jasmine.stone (May 8, 2013)

I found this AHIMA article extremely helpful regarding this topic:
https://newsletters.ahima.org/newsletters/Code_Write/2012/March/patternofuse.html

Especially this:
_"In ICD-9-CM there exists a code for personal history of alcoholism (V11.3). In ICD-10-CM a similar code is not found. ICD-9-CM category V11 is considered a nonspecific category, and the official coding guidelines state that there can be little justification for use of codes from this category in the inpatient setting. The ICD-9-CM Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting contains the following statement under ICD-9-CM category V11: “A code from the mental disorders chapter, with an in-remission fifth-digit, should be used.”"_

I hope this is helpful to someone else too!


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## nadineguiliano (May 19, 2017)

*Query*

I have been instructed by my employer to query the providers if they state History of Alcoholism, for clarification on that or Remission


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## CodingKing (May 19, 2017)

nadineguiliano said:


> I have been instructed by my employer to query the providers if they state History of Alcoholism, for clarification on that or Remission



According to the ICD-10 index Personal History of Alcohol Dependence points to F10.21 - Alcohol dependence, in remission

The old V code maps to some unspecific code so the history of doesn't seem to really exist in ICD0-10[FONT=&quot]
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