Primary Care Coding Alert

Try to find the diagnoses that match up to these milestones

It seems that there's an ICD-9 code for everything. Grab your ICD-9 manual and test your coding skills by filling in the codes for this life story.

My life began on a sunny November morning when, after a long labor in the hospital (Dx 1: ________), I was born a healthy baby (Dx 2: ________).

I had 10 fingers and 10 toes, and my parents thought I was beautiful, even though I had a rather large birthmark (Dx 3: ________) on the left side of my face.

I was a good baby, although my nocturia (Dx 4: ________) caused my parents some sleep deprivation (Dx 5: _______).

I had an uneventful childhood, suffering from the usual maladies of chicken pox, measles, and mumps (Dx 6, 7, and 8:
________). Too bad vaccines for these diseases hadn't been invented yet--I could have used them! (Dx 9, 10 and 11: ________).

As I grew, I was a real tomboy, always trying to outdo the boys on the playground, until one day I took a bad fall from a tree (Dx 12: ________). After that, my mother needed to provide aftercare for my fractured wrist (Dx 13: ________).

I was a normal teenager in the 1960s, so my parents thought I had a case of social maladjustment (Dx 14: ________), but the only trouble I was ever involved in was getting my ears pierced (Dx 15: ________) without their permission.

When I was 17, the doctor gave me a general go-ahead (Dx 16: ________) to take my driving license exam, and I have been on the go ever since.

This coding quiz was contributed by Lynn Yetman, RN, MA, HCS-D, COS-C, LNC, of Reingruber & Company in St. Petersburg, Fla.

ANSWERS:

Dx 1: 662.10--Prolonged labor, unspecified; unspecified as to episode of care or not applicable
Dx 2: V30.00--Single liveborn; born in hospital; born without mention of cesarean delivery
Dx 3: 757.32--Birthmarks
Dx 4: 788.43--Nocturia
Dx 5: V69.4--Sleep deprivation
Dx 6, 7, and 8: 052.9--Chickenpox NOS; 055.9--Measles without mention of complication;
and 072.9--Mumps without mention of complication.
Dx 9, 10 and 11: V05.4--Need for other prophylactic vaccination and inoculation against single diseases; varicella; V04.2--Need for prophylactic vaccination and inoculation against certain viral diseases; measles alone; V04.6--... mumps alone.
Dx 12: E884.9--Other fall from one level to another; fall from tree
Dx 13: V54.12--Aftercare for healing traumatic fracture of lower arm
Dx 14: V62.4--Social maladjustment
Dx 15: V50.3--Ear piercing
Dx 16: V70.3--Other medical examination for administrative purposes; general medical examination for driving license.

Answers to the coding quiz reviewed/provided by Kent J. Moore, manager of Health Care Financing and Delivery Systems for the American Academy of Family Physicians in Leawood, Kan.