Home Health ICD-9/ICD-10 Alert

Question: Would you use a status code such as V45.75 (Acquired absence of organ, stomach) or V45.72 (Acquired absence of intestine) if the patient had only part of his stomach/intestine removed?

Answer: Yes. There is no specific code for a partial removal of these organs, so you could use these codes if this information is important to the plan of care.

Example: The partial removal of the small intestine or part of the stomach would be an important part of the plan of care in the instance of post-surgical care; i.e. the patient just had the surgery removing the partial organ. In this case the code V58.75 would precede the V45.7x code.

Problems related to malnutrition or even a slow healing wound may be reasons for including the status codes on the plan of care. In this case the status codes could be coded secondary to the other diagnoses, for example 707.05 (decubitus ulcer on buttock) with V45.72 as a secondary code. Status codes are used for additional information only, so you should use them only when additional information is needed and will impact the plan of care. When there are no sequelae related to the removal of the organ, then the codes would not be appropriate to use. 

Reader questions were answered by Lisa Selman-Holman, JD, BSN, RN, CHCE, HCS-D, COS-C, consultant and principal of Selman-Holman & Associates in Denton, TX.