General Surgery Coding Alert

Continue to add additional microorganism code.

Converting your necrotizing fasciitis coding from ICD-9 to ICD-10 shouldn't be too complicated, barring ICD-10 changes before its implementation on Oct. 1, 2013.

The two diagnosis coding systems provide a one-to-one crosswalk, as follows:

• ICD-9: 728.86 -- Necrotizing fasciitis
• ICD-10: M72.6 -- Necrotizing fasciitis.

Even the instruction to use an additional code to identify the infectious (causative) organism aligns from ICD-9 to ICD- 10, making your job that much easier.

Organism Codes Vary

Once you get to the organism codes -- that's where the ICD-9 to ICD-10 one-to-one correspondence ends.

Although many codes for infectious organisms will have a direct crosswalk, like 041.01 (Bacterial infection in conditions classified elsewhere and of unspecified site, streptococcus group A) shifting to B95.0 (Streptococcus, group A, as the cause of diseases classified elsewhere), that's not the whole story.

Expect to see different codes from the micro lab when your surgeon treats necrotizing fasciitis with grafting or other services. Some changes may be a step backward, like the inability to distinguish Methicillin resistant and susceptible strains. ICD-10 provides one code -- B95.6 (Staphylococcus aureus as the cause of diseases classified elsewhere) in the place of 041.11 (Methicillin susceptible Staphylococcus aureus [MSSA]) and 041.12 (Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus [MRSA]).