Primary Care Coding Alert

Question: Which diagnosis code should I report for a newborns circumcision? We had been using V50.2, but have recently been told that this code should be reported only for adults who undergo elective circumcision. Is there another code for newborns?

Montana Subscriber

Answer: No, the only available code is V50.2 (elective surgery for purposes other than remedying health states; routine or ritual circumcision). This code makes three distinctions about how it should be used (absence of medical indication, routine or ritual), but none of them exclude newborn circumcision.

You Be the Coder and Reader Questions were reviewed by Daniel S. Fick, MD, director of risk management and compliance for the College of Medicine faculty practice at the University of Iowa in Iowa City; and Kent Moore, manager of Health Care Financing and Delivery Systems for the American Academy of Family Physicians.