Podiatry Coding & Billing Alert

Question: My podiatrist often sees patients with open wounds of the ankle. How do I code them in ICD-10?

Texas Subscriber

Answer: ICD-10 gives open wounds of the ankle its own series of codes (the knee and lower leg also get their own series), with specific codes for right and left ankle and the type of wound (laceration, puncture, open bite). Therefore, your podiatrist will need to document the encounter with great specificity.

7^th character: At the end of the six-character ICD-10 codes below, you will add a seventh character describing whether it is an initial encounter (A), subsequent encounter (D), or sequela (S).

Example: Report an initial encounter for a puncture wound to the left foot with foreign body as S91.342A.

Muscle and tendon wounds have their own code series in ICD-10. When coding for open wounds of the ankle without tendon involvement, your choices are:

• S91.001x — Unspecified open wound, right ankle
• S91.002x —… left ankle
• S91.009x —… unspecified ankle
• S91.011x — Laceration without foreign body, right ankle
• S91.012x —…left ankle
• S91.019x —… unspecified ankle
• S91.021x — Laceration with foreign body, right ankle
• S91.022x — … left ankle
• S91.029x — … unspecified ankle
• S91.031x — Puncture wound without foreign body, right ankle
• S91.032x —… left ankle
• S91.039x —… unspecified ankle
• S91.041x — Puncture wound with foreign body, right ankle
• S91.042x —… left ankle
• S91.049x —… unspecified ankle
• S91.051x — Open bite, right ankle
• S91.052x —… left ankle
• S91.059x —… unspecified ankle.

Note that you have only till Oct. 1 to use unspecified codes.