General Surgery Coding Alert

Plus, you can also look forward to additional personal history V codes. In just a few months, you'll be faced with more than 350 ICD-9 changes. If you don't incorporate those changes into your coding that day, your practice could face denials and lost revenue. There are 311 new, 22 invalid, and 45 revised ICD-9 codes that take effect on Oct. 1, 2009, for fiscal year 2010. Every dollar -- and every productivity hour -- counts these days, so we've scoured the diagnosis code changes for you. Here's what you need to know in general surgery to ensure you code properly after Oct. 1. Get Specific in Vascular Surgery If your general surgeon performs vascular surgery procedures, you'll have several new and revised embolism and thrombosis codes that will allow you to offer more specific information to your payers. ICD-9 2010 will offer you 12 new chronic venous embolism and thrombosis codes [...]