Question: I was looking at MDS item A1550 (Conditions Related to Intellectual Disability/Developmental Disability (ID/DD) Status) and was confused by the use of the word “organic” as one of the item coding options. What does organic status have to do with disability?
New Mexico Subscriber
Answer: Item A1550 is designed to document conditions associated with intellectual or developmental disabilities and encompasses conditions like Down syndrome, autism, and epilepsy.
On page A-25, the RAI Manual explains what other conditions you could code in A1150: “Examples of diagnostic conditions include congenital syphilis, maternal intoxication, mechanical injury at birth, prenatal hypoxia, neuronal lipid storage diseases, phenylketonuria (PKU), neurofibromatosis, microcephalus, macroencephaly, meningomyelocele, congenital hydrocephalus, etc.”
