Ophthalmology and Optometry Coding Alert

Question: What is Behçet’s disease, and how is this condition coded?

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Answer: Behcet’s disease is a rare disorder that causes blood vessel inflammation throughout a patient’s body. The disease can lead to numerous signs and symptoms that can seem unrelated at first including mouth sores, eye inflammation, and skin rashes and lesions. Ophthalmologists are sometimes called to diagnose and evaluate Behçet’s disease, as the inflammation can affect patients’ eyes so severely that blindness may result.

If the ophthalmologist is involved before the Behçet’s disease diagnosis is made, you’ll code the symptoms, which can include visual disturbances (H53.8), low vision (H54.5x), blindness (H54.x), ocular pain (H57.1), or eye inflammation, among other signs and symptoms.

Once the patient is formally diagnosed with Behçet’s disease, you’ll report M35.2 (Behçet’s disease), which is located in ICD-10’s Diseases of the Musculoskeletal System and Connective Tissue section due to the fact that it is a blood vessel inflammatory disorder.