Revenue Cycle Insider

Question: I have a patient record where the gastroenterologist documented the diagnosis as chronic gastritis with H. pylori. I’m new to coding and I’m not sure what codes to assign. Could you guide me through the selection process?

Indiana Subscriber

Answer: You’ll assign two ICD-10-CM codes for the documented diagnosis. Let’s start with the code for chronic gastritis. Search the ICD-10-CM Alphabetic Index for Gastritis > chronic and verify the code selection in the Tabular List. You’ll use K29.50 (Unspecified chronic gastritis without bleeding) to report the chronic gastritis diagnosis.

Next, you’ll turn your attention to the H. pylori infection. The bacterium H. pylori, which is short for Helicobacter pylori, can cause a stomach infection and is the most common cause of peptic ulcers. Search the ICD-10-CM Alphabetic Index for Infection > bacterial NOS > as cause of disease classified elsewhere > Helicobacter pylori [H. pylori]. This refers to B96.81 (Helicobacter pylori [H. pylori] as the cause of diseases classified elsewhere), which you’ll verify in the Tabular List.

Mike Shaughnessy, BA, CPC, Production Editor, AAPC