Anesthesia Coding Alert

ICD-9 2007 incorporates more than 300 additions, revisions and deletions

You'll have to get used to a lot of new diagnosis codes this fall because the 2007 version of ICD-9 features more than 200 new codes to describe your patients' symptoms. Other changes include:

• 55 revised diagnosis codes
• 28 invalid diagnosis codes
• 36 new procedure codes
• 8 revised procedure codes
• 4 invalid procedure codes.

Get ready: To keep your data accurate and expedite reimbursement, follow these steps outlined by Judy Adams, RN, BSN, HCS-D, with Charlotte, N.C.-based LarsonAllen:

• Educate staff. At least one staff member should take a recognized coding class and then offer inservice training to other staff, says Lynn Yetman, RN, MA, HCS-D, COS-C, LNC, with Reingruber & Company in St. Petersburg, Fla. Clinicians, quality assurance staff and billers all need to understand when to use the new codes.

• Obtain and distribute new or updated coding books.

• Collect and destroy--or update--old coding cheat sheets.

• Contact your software vendor to be sure you have the update installed. Then test the software--before Oct. 1--to verify that the changes are correct.