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Neurosurgery Coding Alert

Coding Guidelines:

You Are Mistaken If You Think All ICD-9 Codes Expand Into Multiple Options.

Published on Fri Jan 28, 2011

Report both acute and chronic conditions that your patient has.The ICD-10-CM manual seems voluminous. You may be operating under the assumption that ICD-9 codes will always multiply into more specific options. However, that isn't always the case. Conditions requiring two more ICD-9 codes right now might be simplified into a single ICD-10 option in 2013. Let us look for examples from a variety of disease conditions that your patient is likely to be having. Best bet: To determine whether you should report multiple codes or a single ICD-10- CM code, you need to read your coding guidelines. Keep an eye out for phrases like "use additional code" or "code first." Capture Single Condition with Multiple Codes True, you may find that a patient requires multiple ICD-10 codes to fully qualify the condition he or she has. "Use additional code:" When you're searching the Tabular List, you'll find "use additional code" [...]
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