Neurology & Pain Management Coding Alert

If you wait until January to use new Dx codes, you’ll be late.

Coders in medical practices across the country are currently trying to get their heads around the new, and final, list of codes for ICD-10-CM 2019.

Breakdown: The final list of ICD-10-CM codes for 2019 includes more than 300 new codes and nearly 200 revisions. There are a few things you need to keep in mind for 2019, as the next ICD-10-CM will have some new coding options for conditions common to some of your patients.

Here’s a quick rundown on ICD-10-CM 2019.

Myalgia Moves to 4-Code Family

For practices that might treat a patient with myalgia, there are a couple of changes. The ICD-10-CM manual for 2019 will include the following codes:

• M79.10 — Myalgia, unspecified site
• M79.11 — Myalgia of mastication muscle
• M79.12 — Myalgia of auxiliary muscles, head and neck
• M79.18 — Myalgia, other site.

This makes reporting for myalgia more specific, which will help the provider paint a more accurate picture of the patient’s condition. In 2018, you would have reported M79.1 (Myalgia) for any type of myalgia.

Remember: According to CMS, you should start using the 2019 codes later this year, as per usual. “These 2019 ICD-10 codes are to be used for discharges occurring from October 1, 2018 through September 30, 2019,” CMS reports on its website.

To see all of the documents related to ICD-10-CM 2019, go to: https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/ICD10/2019-ICD-10-PCS.html.

Muscular Dystrophy Set Adds These Codes

Similar to the myalgia code set, ICD-10-CM also expanded the coding choices for patients suffering from muscular dystrophy. When coding for this condition in 2018, you only had one coding choice: G71.0 (Muscular dystrophy).

ICD-10-CM 2019 will contain the following codes for use with muscular dystrophy diagnoses:

• G71.00 — Muscular dystrophy, unspecified
• G71.01 — Duchenne or Becker muscular dystrophy
• G71.02 — Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy
• G71.09 — Other specified muscular dystrophies.

Impact: You’ll be able to achieve greater specificity for some muscular dystrophy patients — but not all. In ICD-10-CM 2017, the list under G71.0 included each type of muscular dystrophy the code represented. With the breakout codes accounting for some of the listed muscular dystrophy types moving forward, there are some conditions that you’ll most likely report with either G71.00 or G71.09 starting October 1.

The conditions that aren’t accounted for specifically by the new muscular dystrophy codes, but are still listed under the 2018 G71.0 diagnosis code entry, are:

• Benign scapuloperoneal muscular dystrophy with early contractures [Emery-Dreifuss]
• Congenital muscular dystrophy NOS
• Congenital muscular dystrophy with specific morphological abnormalities of the muscle fiber
• Distal muscular dystrophy
• Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy
• Ocular muscular dystrophy
• Oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy
• Scapuloperoneal muscular dystrophy.

Best bet: Check with payers to see how you should report these diagnoses before using them for the first time.