Neurology & Pain Management Coding Alert

Knowing the disease type will point you toward the right code.A diagnosis of neurofibromatosis can apply to patients whose conditions range from possible signs of the syndrome to patients who have a single growing mass on a nerve your clinician treats. Your first step in coding is to clarify which type of neurofibromatosis the patient has, so you can assign the correct diagnosis. Definition: Neurofibromatosis is a genetic disorder that mainly affects how nerve cells form and grow. It can cause tumors to grow on nerves. There is no cure for neurofibromatosis, so clinicians plan treatment (such as surgery to remove the tumors, radiation or chemotherapy) to control symptoms. "The ICD-9 Tabular section lists the diagnosis codes for the various neurofibromatosis conditions in the Neoplasms chapter in contrast to ICD-10 which includes the neurofibromatosis diagnoses in the Congenital Malformations, Deformations and Chromosomal Abnormalities chapter," says Marvel Hammer, RN, CPC, CCS-P, [...]