Home Health ICD-9/ICD-10 Alert

Severe brain injuries can cause conditions also caused by CVAs.

Don't confuse CVA codes with the codes for a subdural hemorrhage that results from a traumatic brain injury.
 
If the patient has a trauma injury, select from trauma codes 850-854, says Dio Namocatcat, CCS, HCS-D, CPC, with the Visiting Nurse Regional Health Care System in Brooklyn, NY. If it's an acute Cerebral Vascular Accident (CVA), use a code from the 430-434 (Cerebrovascular disease) series, he says.
 
Severe brain injuries can cause hemiplegia, aphasia and other conditions also caused by CVAs, notes Lisa Selman-Holman, JD, BSN, RN, CHCE, HCS-D, COS-C, consultant and principal of Selman-Holman & Associates in Denton, TX.

Key: When the brain injury is acute, code the brain injury first followed by the residuals of the brain injury, suggests Selman-Holman.

Example: If speech therapy is being provided for aphasia as a late effect of a brain injury, Selman-Holman suggests coding as follows:
 
• M0230a: V57.3 (Speech therapy); 
• M0240b: 784.3 (Aphasia); and 
• M0240c: 907.0 (Late effect of intracranial injury without mention of skull  fracture).