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Practice Management Alert

Hold Out Another Year for Secondary Diabetes Codes

Published on Sun Sep 09, 2007

Good news: When they do come out, they-ll have their own category

Secondary diabetes will receive its own category in 2009, Sheri Bernard, vice president of member relations of the American Academy of Professional Coders, revealed at the American Academy of Professional Coders 2007 conference in Seattle. Moreover, the subcategories for complications will mirror those for the existing 250.xx series of diabetes codes--which means coders will have lots of new codes to work with.

These codes should take effect Oct. 1, 2008, if all goes well, says Amy Blum, medical classification specialist with the National Center for Health Statistics, the part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that develops new ICD-9 codes.

The plan: The CDC will propose two new categories for secondary diabetes, based on the disease cause, in 2009: 248.xx and 249.xx. One is for diabetes due to an existing condition, and the other is for diabetes due to a drug. This plan goes along with comments on the CDC's previous proposal, Blum says.
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