Home Health ICD-9/ICD-10 Alert
Get Specific With Fractures
Question: In your Dec. issue, "You Be The Coder," you suggested coding V54.13 for a patient who had an open reduction internal fixation (ORIF). I thought I understood that once a fracture has been repaired, it was no longer considered aftercare for healing fracture. Answer: The ORIF repairs the fracture but the fracture is not healed until the ends of the bone grow back together. Code V54.09 (Other aftercare involving internal fixation device) is a non-specific code. Since 2003, we've been able to use more specific codes from the V54.1x (Aftercare for healing traumatic fracture) series to report care of a healing traumatic fracture.
Wouldn't it be be more appropriate to report V54.09 for this patient?
West Virginia Subscriber
Home Health ICD-9/ICD-10 Alert
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