Pediatric Coding Alert

Check out how your autism coding options will change under ICD-10.If you've become accustomed to marking the "other specified pervasive developmental disorder" code 299.8x for Asperger's patients, you'll have to adjust your thinking once the ICD-10 diagnosis coding system kicks in. That's because you'll be lucky enough to have a specific code for this disorder, which pediatricians see fairly often.Although children with autism may see a wide variety of specialists during the course of their treatment, it's often the pediatrician who initially diagnoses the patient with the condition, and who treats the patient on an ongoing basis. The following autism codes currently exist under ICD-9:299.0x - Autistic disorder299.1x - Childhood disintegrative disorder299.8x - Other specified pervasive developmental disorders. The parenthetical notes for this code indicate that it includes Asperger's disorder299.9x - Unspecified pervasive developmental disorderThe "x" place holders in the ICD-9 codes are currently replaced with a "0" (Current or [...]