ED Coding and Reimbursement Alert

Question: Our physician treated a patient complaining of neck pain. Encounter notes indicate that the final diagnosis is “neck sprain.” What is the correct ICD-10 code for this encounter?

Tennessee Subscriber

Answer: You may need a little bit more information to select the most accurate code. First, you’ll need to find out which ligaments/joints were sprained in the neck.

Your options include:

• S13.4xx- (Sprain of ligaments of cervical spine)
• S13.8xx- (Sprain of joints and ligaments of other parts of neck)
• S13.9xx- (Sprain of joints and ligaments of unspecified parts of neck)

Note: Each of these codes requires a seventh character to note encounter status: A (Initial encounter), D (Subsequent encounter), or S (Sequela).

So, if the notes indicate that a patient presents with neck pain for the first time, and the provider diagnoses a sprain of the cervical spine ligaments, you’d report S13.4xxA for the encounter. You should also add a code from Chapter 20 to describe how the neck sprain happened if known (i.e., W06.XXXA, Fall from bed, initial encounter).