Outpatient Facility Coding Alert

Say good-bye to ‘unspecified’ diagnoses.

Several treatments are available for pneumothorax, including injecting air into the pleural cavity (32960, Pneumothorax, therapeutic, intrapleural injection of air). The current diagnosis family for pneumothorax is 512.8x (Pneumothorax). The three specific choices depend on how the condition is classified:

• 512.81 — Primary spontaneous pneumothorax
• 512.82 — Secondary spontaneous pneumothorax
• 512.83 — Chronic pneumothorax.

ICD-10 difference: When ICD-9 is replaced by ICD-10 on Oct. 1, 2014, you’ll turn to the J93.x (Pneumothorax) family of codes for your options. Four codes under J93.x that describe the condition in greater detail make up the code family. These include:

• J93.0 — Spontaneous tension pneumothorax
• J93.1 — Other spontaneous pneumothorax
• J93.8 — Other pneumothorax and air leak
• J93.9 — Pneumothorax, unspecified.

Coding tip: Pay attention to the type of pneumothorax identified in the documentation. Category J93.x excludes some commonly seen forms of pneumothorax, such as postprocedural (which you’ll report with J95.81x) and traumatic pneumothorax (S27.0).