Psychiatry Coding & Reimbursement Alert

Since type of schizophrenia plays a vital role in providing an accurate diagnosis using both ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes, you'll stand a better chance of nailing the right dx codes with this refresher:

• Paranoid type -- Patient experiences delusions and/or hallucinations (usually auditory);
• Disorganized type -- Patient demonstrates disorganized behavior and speech;
• Catatonic type -- Patient experiences movement difficulties and remains immobile for extended periods of time;
• Undifferentiated type -- Patient demonstrates symptoms of different types of schizophrenia;
• Residual type -- Patient has a past history of schizophrenia but is presently not having any symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions or disorganized behavior and speech;
• Simple Schizophrenia -- The patient is showing prominent and increasingly progressive signs of social withdrawal but has not experienced any psychotic episodes; and
• Schizophreniform disorder.