Pediatric Coding Alert

Question: We recently saw a 6-day old infant who presented with discharge from both of their eyes for the last three days, according to the patient’s mother. The pediatrician examined the baby and noted they had swollen eyes that were red, appeared sore, and had a yellow sticky discharge coming from them. The practitioner used a cotton swab to obtain a sample to send to the lab. The lab results identified the causative agent as gonococcus bacterium, and the infant was diagnosed with neonatal conjunctivitis. There are so many conjunctivitis ICD-10-CM codes — which one is appropriate for this case?

AAPC Forum Participant

Answer: Because the patient is an infant, you will code this as P39.1 (Neonatal conjunctivitis and dacryocystitis). Neonatal conjunctivitis usually occurs during delivery. Keep in mind that codes for infants (neonates) are normally different or separate from those for older children or adults. Neonates have different physiological characteristics and disease patterns compared to older children and adults, so having their own specific codes allows for more precise coding and better overall patient care.

With children and adults, you can code most of the bacterial and allergic conjunctivitis diagnoses using the following codes instead:

• H10.0- (Mucopurulent conjunctivitis)
• H10.1- (Acute atopic conjunctivitis)
• H10.2- (Other acute conjunctivitis)
• H10.3- (Unspecified acute conjunctivitis)
• H10.4- (Chronic conjunctivitis)
• H10.5- (Blepharoconjunctivitis)
• H10.8- (Other conjunctivitis)
• H10.9 (Unspecified conjunctivitis).

Lindsey Bush, BA, MA, CPC, Production Editor, AAPC