Practice Management Alert
Check Out These General ICD-9 Changes
Question: What are some of the most prominent 2006 ICD-9 changes that will affect general practitioners this fall? Dehydration: Now ICD-9 lumps dehydration, volume depletion and hypovolemia under the same code: 276.5 (Volume depletion). But this fall, 276.5 will require a fifth digit to specify whether the patient has: Overweight: Starting Oct. 1, you will be able to label a patient as overweight without having to indicate obesity (278.00) or morbid obesity (278.01). New code 278.02 (Overweight) will now be the best choice for overweight patients who require related services such as dietary counseling. BMI: ICD-9 2006 will also introduce numerous body mass index (BMI) codes you will use in addition to an overweight or obese code to indicate an adult patient's level of obesity or underweight status. These codes will help billers indicate the reason for surgical difficulties on obese patients. For example, overweight and obese patients are at higher risk for surgical and anesthesia complications and can require far more care in surgery than a patient of healthy weight. Also: The codes may also help justify psychiatric or nutrition counseling for underweight patients, such as patients with anorexia. The new BMI codes range from V85.0 (Body mass index less than 19, adult) to V85.4 (Body mass index 40 and over, adult).
Texas Subscriber
Answer: Several important ICD-9 code changes will affect a wide range of practices starting Oct. 1. Here are a few highlights:
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