ED Coding and Reimbursement Alert
You Be the Coder:
Nonspecific Lumbago Calls for This Code
Published on Wed Oct 12, 2022
Question: Encounter notes indicate that the provider treated a patient with “lumbago NOS.” I’m having trouble locating an ICD-10 code for this condition. Can you help?
New Jersey Subscriber
Answer: You should report M54.50 (Low back pain, unspecified) for this patient. ICD-10 removed all doubt about this diagnosis code choice when it added new synonyms under M54.50 to include “lumbago NOS.”
Star sign: In ICD-10 2022, the synonyms for M54.50 include:
*Low back pain
*Lumbago NOS
The stars beside the synonyms means that the descriptor was revised for 2022 to include these alternate terms.
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