General Surgery Coding Alert

All you need to know right now to report a nevus or other non-cancerous skin lesion using ICD-9 is body site. But that’s not true when ICD-10 goes into effect and you’ll have many more specific codes for the condition. 

 

Remember: The new ICD-10 compliance date is expected to be Oct. 1, 2015.

 

Examine 216 Options

 

Here are your benign skin lesion choices right now:

Move to 2 Code Families

 

Two different code families will crosswalk from 216 when you begin using ICD-10. They are D22 (Melanocytic nevi) and D23 (Other benign neoplasms of skin). 

 

The division: D22 includes atypical nevus, blue hairy pigmented nevus, and nevus not otherwise specified (NOS). In contrast, D23 includes benign neoplasm of hair follicles, benign neoplasm of sebaceous glands, and benign neoplasm of sweat glands. You currently report codes from the 216 family for all of these conditions. 

 

Drop ‘other’: Using ICD-9, you should report 216.8 for a benign skin neoplasm at a specific site other than those specified in 216.0-216.7. But ICD-10 drops that designation, going straight to the “9” fourth digit for unspecified site.

 

More information: Although the fourth digit for site is as far as it goes with ICD-9, there’s more to it for ICD-10. For fourth digits 1, 2, 6, and 7 under D22 and D23, you’ll need to report a fifth digit for “unspecified” side (0), “right” side (1), and “left” side (2). For fourth digit 3 under D22 and D23 for other and unspecified parts of face, you’ll need to select a fifth digit for “unspecified” site (0) or “other” site (9).