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Question: I have a gastroenterologist’s report that lists the diagnosis as “peptic ulcer of the esophagus with bleeding.” I’m new to gastroenterology coding — could you explain which code I should assign for this diagnosis?

Washington Subscriber

Answer: You will assign K22.11 (Ulcer of esophagus with bleeding) to report the gastroenterologist’s findings. Parent code K22.1- (Ulcer of esophagus) lists several additional synonyms under the descriptor that are coded with the K22.1- code category:

• Barrett’s ulcer
• Erosion of esophagus
• Fungal ulcer of esophagus
• Ulcer of esophagus due to ingestion of chemicals
• Ulcer of esophagus due to ingestion of drugs or medicaments
• Ulcerative esophagitis

Parent code K22.1- also requires a 5^th character to complete the code. The 5^th character options of 0 and 1 indicate whether the patient experienced the esophageal ulcer without bleeding or with bleeding, respectively.

To locate the correct diagnosis code, open the ICD-10-CM code set Alphabetic Index. Search for “Ulcer,” then “peptic” on the first indentation, followed by “esophagus” on the second indentation, and finally “with bleeding.” This provides you with K22.11, which you’ll then verify in the Tabular List.

Mike Shaughnessy, BA, CPC, Development Editor, AAPC