Optometry Coding & Billing Alert

Conjunctivitis, blepharitis and dry eye codes expand options starting October 2015.

With eye allergy season in full bloom, you’re probably coding your share of dry eye (375.15), blepharitis (373.0x), and conjunctivitis (372.xx) diagnoses. But when Oct. 1, 2015, arrives, you’ll toss out those ICD-9 codes in favor of a new system, ICD-10, which will expand the code set significantly.

Conjunctivitis: The conjunctivitis category (372.xx) will expand to nearly 70 distinct diagnosis codes, describing not only the type of conjunctivitis, but also whether the left eye, right eye, both eyes, or an unspecified eye is afflicted. 

Example: The ICD-9 code for simple chronic conjunctivitis, 372.11, will translate to these ICD-10 codes:

• H10.421 — Simple chronic conjunctivitis, right eye
• H10.422 — … left eye
• H10.423 — … bilateral
• H10.429 — … unspecified eye.

Blepharitis: The ICD-9 codes for blepharitis (373.0x) will get even more granular than that, specifying not only the particular kind of blepharitis (squamous, ulcerative or unspecified) and which eye is affected, but also which particular eyelid is affected.

Dry eye: Compared to the blepharitis and conjunctivitis codes, the ICD-10 transition for dry eye diagnoses is fairly straightforward, asking you to specify only whether the left, right, or both eyes are affected.

Learn more: For more complete ICD-9 to ICD-10 mapping, visit https://www.aapc.com/codes/.