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Orthopedic Coding Alert

ICD-10 Update:

You'll Need to Be More Specific With Muscle and Connective Tissue Disorders When ICD-10 Hits

Published on Thu Mar 22, 2012

Hint: Pay attention to the site of involvement. When you're coding for ligament disorders, palmar fascia contracture, foreign body granulomas, and muscle spasm, your ICD-10 code choices will expand substantially. Read on for advice on how to best describe these and other common connective tissue conditions. (For more on connective tissue diagnosis coding in ICD-10, see Orthopedic Coding Alert, Vol. 15 No. 3).Get Clinical Staff Used to Even More SpecificsTo prep doctors for this level of detail, start training now. "Before the ICD-10 implementation date, coders will need to educate their physicians on the need for a much higher degree of specificity in their diagnostic statements," says Heidi Stout, BA, CPC, COSC, PCS, CCS-P, Coder on Call, Inc., Milltown, New Jersey and orthopedic coding division director, The Coding Network, LLC, Beverly Hills, CA. Identify Discrete Codes for Paraplegia, FibromatosesThe ICD-9 codes for specific muscle disorders like 728.3 (Other specific muscle [...]
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