Question: A patient reports to the internist with a pair of burns: a second-degree burn on her right wrist and a first-degree burn on the back of her right hand. How many diagnosis codes should I report to account for these burns?
Montana Subscriber
If the burns were instead in separate anatomic areas, you would report a diagnosis code for each injury. So if the physician treats a first-degree burn on a patient's right elbow and a second-degree burn on the patient's hand, report 943.12 (Burn of upper limb, except wrist and hand; erythema [first degree]; elbow) and 944.26 on the claim.
No matter what: When choosing diagnosis codes for your burn treatment claims, include a code from the 948.xx set (Burns classified according to extent of body surface involved) to represent the total body surface area (TBSA) of the burn. So if a patient had burns to 8 percent of TBSA, with no mention of third-degree burns, you would include 948.00 (Burn [any degree] involving less than 10 percent of body surface; less than 10 percent or unspecified) on the claim.
