Outpatient Facility Coding Alert

Question: We have been successfully reporting H10.10 for conjunc­tivitis since ICD-10 went into effect. However, it was denied for the first time last month. Has there been an update on this code that I am not aware of?

Maine subscriber

Answer: There has been no update on this code as such, but it could be that your payers want you to code more specifically now that the ICD-10 grace period got over in October 2016. So, H10.10 (Acute atopic conjunctivitis, unspecified eye) may not suffice anymore. Based on the cause of conjunctivitis, and which eye was affected, you will need to use an accurate diagnosis code from amongst the variety of code choices available. Try and avoid the unspecified code as far as possible, even if it means you need to query your provider for those details.

For example, you would report an acute conjunctivitis for the right eye as H10.11 (Acute atopic conjunctivitis, right eye). If you need to report a chronic conjunctivitis of the right eye, you will need to code to the highest specificity possible — H10.421 (Simple chronic conjunctivitis, right eye).

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