# Coding for Tick bites?????



## angel1101 (Jun 8, 2016)

Hi,

I am a pediatric biller and we are seeing a lot of children coming in for Tick bites. This specific situation is a child that presented with a tic on the shoulder that he got while at school. Would I code this visit with S40.272 Other superficial bite of left shoulder and T63.484A Toxic effect of venom of other arthropod undetermined and Y92.219 for unspecified school as the place of occurrence of the external cause.  I don't think using the insect bite codes are correct because the Tick is not considered non venomous. Please any advise is appreciated!! Thank you, Angela


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## CodingKing (Jun 8, 2016)

There are some studies that state ticks should be considered venomous ectoparasites but I don't think they are officially recognized as venomous. They are more just a vector of disease.


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## txpottery@yahoo.com (Jun 23, 2016)

*having same issue...tick bite coding*

My dr's are using W57.XXXA for tick bites. However, I'm having issues w/determining a primary dx since most of these pt's present w/no other symptoms. Does anyone have suggestions for this scenario?  I also have one that had a rash....but the icd10 codes for rash don't really apply. Would love to hear what y'all are seeing/doing. thanks


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## jlanguedoc (Jul 14, 2017)

*Primary Tick Bite Diagnosis*



txpottery@yahoo.com said:


> My dr's are using W57.XXXA for tick bites. However, I'm having issues w/determining a primary dx since most of these pt's present w/no other symptoms. Does anyone have suggestions for this scenario?  I also have one that had a rash....but the icd10 codes for rash don't really apply. Would love to hear what y'all are seeing/doing. thanks



I know this is an older post and the answer has probably already been found, but just in case someone is looking at the thread for the same question here's our solution...
The first code should be an S code that describes the location of the bite, such as S70.362A, Insect bite (nonvenomous), left thigh, initial encounter.


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