ED Coding and Reimbursement Alert

Question: A diabetic patient presented to the ED stating that she dropped a dirty kitchen knife on her right lesser toe, cutting the top of her toe two days ago. Her toe is now swollen, red, and painful and has a yellow discharge coming from it. The patient did not sustain damage to her toenail, and there was no foreign body in the wound. The ED physician took a culture of the laceration, and the result from the lab came back as a staph infection. Which ICD-10 codes should I report on this claim?

Alabama Subscriber

Answer: You should report S91.114A (Laceration without foreign body of right lesser toe(s) without damage to nail, initial encounter) for the laceration, along with the proper ICD-10 code, such as B95.8 (Unspecified staphylococcus as the cause of diseases classified elsewhere), for the staph infection. You should also report W26.0XXA (Contact with knife, initial encounter) as the external cause code.