Gastroenterology Coding Alert
Keep Excludes1 Note in Mind for Dyspepsia
Question: How should we report a diagnosis of indigestion along with heartburn? Codify Subscriber Answer: ICD-10-CM code K30 (Functional dyspepsia) includes the diagnosis of indigestion, and this appears to be the most accurate code for this condition, unless there are additional factors not mentioned in the question. However, the Excludes1 note for K30 mentions heartburn (R12), so you would only report K30 here. An Excludes1 note means that these two codes can never be coded together, and you should code either one or the other. You would prefer the definitive diagnosis, which is why K30 is the more accurate choice over R12. When there is known GERD, however, and other type(s) of dyspepsia are present, it would be legitimate to code for GERD (K21.0 or K21.9) with the K30 dyspepsia code.
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