Pain Management Coding Alert
Watch for Cervical Conditions That May Not Offer One-To-One ICD-10 Match
The initial code you find might not be the best cross-over.
When your pain management specialist treats a patient with cervical spondylosis or other conditions, you may or may not find correlating codes in ICD-10.
Case in point: For ossification of posterior longitudinal ligament in the cervical region, you currently report code 723.7 (Ossification of posterior longitudinal ligament in cervical region). This code maps to code M67.88 (Other specified disorders of synovium and tendon, other site) in ICD-10 databases. However, a more appropriate ICD-10 code may be M48.8X2 (Other specified spondylopathies, cervical region), depending on the individual case.
For cervical spinal stenosis, you report ICD-9 code 723.0 (Spinal stenosis in cervical region). This maps to codes M48.01 (Spinal stenosis, occipito-atlanto-axial region) - M99.71 (Connective tissue and disc stenosis of intervertebral foramina of cervical region) in ICD-10.
A third condition, cervical spondylosis with myelopathy, currently gets reported with diagnosis 721.1 (Cervical spondylosis with myelopathy). This code maps to M47.011 (Anterior spinal artery compression syndromes, occipito-atlanto-axial region) to M47.13 (Other spondylosis with myelopathy, cervicothoracic region) in ICD-10.
Coding notes: As with any conditions, your key to successful ICD-10 code assignment will lie in your provider’s documentation. The more details he or she can include in the patient’s chart, the easier your code translation will be.
Pain Management Coding Alert
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