Primary Care Coding Alert

Question: What is the correct ICD-10 coding for a patient diagnosed with alcohol use disorder with both withdrawal and alcohol-induced depressive disorder? Can I just use F10.24, or do I have to code each condition separately?

Delaware Subscriber

Answer: One of the synonyms for F10.24 (Alcohol dependence with alcohol-induced mood disorder) is “alcohol use disorder, severe, with alcohol-induced depressive disorder.” The code describes depression brought on by alcohol use, and assuming your provider has documented that the two conditions are linked, it would be appropriate to use in this case.

However, the code does not describe the patient’s withdrawal, so you are correct in thinking that another code will be necessary to provide a full description of the patient’s condition. For this, you will look toward another F10.- (Alcohol related disorders) code, most likely F10.230 (Alcohol dependence with withdrawal, uncomplicated) unless your provider has documented conditions such as delirium or perceptual disturbance related to the withdrawal.

Coding caution: Don’t forget to pay attention to the note accompanying the F10.- parent code, which requires you to use an additional code from Y90.- (Evidence of alcohol involvement determined by blood alcohol level) to provide documentation of the patient’s blood alcohol level if applicable, and to abide by the Excludes1 note for F10.2- (Alcohol dependence), which tells you not to report any code from the alcohol use unspecified (F10.9-) or alcohol abuse (F10.1-) code groups.