Pediatric Coding Alert

Consider these changes that have already been instituted before the code set even takes effect.

You may not be completely familiar with the ICD-10 code set yet, but it continues to grow anyway.

CMS recently posted the 2012 ICD-10 code update, which not only shows which codes were added, deleted, and revised this year, but also offers information on the new diagnosis coding system, which will be mandatory for all providers as of Oct. 1, 2013.

For example: In 2011, the ICD-10 code for juvenile absence epilepsy was G40.3 (Generalized idiopathic epilepsy and epileptic syndromes). This year, however, the ICD-10 manual includes the new code G40.A (Absence epileptic syndrome), which includes juvenile absence epilepsy, as indicated in the parenthetical notes. You'll also find four new codes under the G40.A heading, which are G40.A01-G40.A09 (Absence epileptic syndrome, not intractable...) and G40.A11-G40.A19 (Absence epileptic syndrome, intractable...).

In addition, CMS has released a list of duplicate codes that show which ICD-10 descriptors are assigned to the exact same codes as an existing ICD-9 classification. For instance, if you look up the ICD-10 code for "Wilson's disease" and find that it's E83.01, you may notice that looks familiar. That's because ICD-9 code E83.01 is currently an active diagnosis code to represent a boat accident (which will eventually be coded using V90.89 under ICD-10). It is unclear whether CMS intends on replacing the ICD-10 codes that are repeated (with different meanings) under ICD-9 or whether they have simply pointed the duplicates out to make practices aware of the differences.

For more on the 2012 ICD-10 changes, visit www.cms.gov/ICD10/11b14_2012_ICD10CM_and_GEMs.asp.