Radiology Coding Alert

In 2015, don’t expect a direct one-to-one match for all codes.

Effective Oct. 1, 2015, you will need to accommodate change for the diagnosis coding for skin disorders caused by radiation. You will not find a direct one-to-one match in ICD-10, but it isn’t as challenging to adopt the new codes. Here is a detailed listing of how codes will change when ICD-10 is implemented.

Look for debut of the L57.- codes in ICD-10: ICD-10 contains a category of diagnoses relating to “Skin changes due to chronic exposure to nonionizing radiation,” which will map to ICD-9 codes that are now scattered among different sections. The new ICD-10 category, L57.-, consists of codes listed in table 1.

Note: ICD-9 code 701.8 maps to two ICD-10 codes in the L57.- category, but it will also map to other ICD-10 codes in other categories:

• L11.8 — Other specified acantholytic disorders
• L11.9 — Acantholytic disorder, unspecified
• L66.4 — Folliculitis ulerythematosa reticulata
• L85.8 — Other specified epidermal thickening
• L87.1 — Reactive perforating collagenosis
• L87.8 — Other transepidermal elimination disorders
• L90.3 — Atrophoderma of Pasini and Pierini
• L90.4 — Acrodermatitis chronica atrophicans
  
• L90.8 — Other atrophic disorders of skin
• L91.8 — Other hypertrophic disorders of the skin
• L92.2 — Granuloma faciale [eosinophilic granuloma of skin]
• L94.8 — Other specified localized connective tissue disorders
• L98.5 — Mucinosis of the skin
• L98.6 — Other infiltrative disorders of the skin and subcutaneous tissue

ICD-9 code 709.09 will also map to the codes in the ICD-10 “Other disorders of pigmentation” series (L81.-).

Learn more: For more information on the ICD-10 conversion, as well as specific ICD-9 to ICD-10 code bridges, visit https://www.aapc.com/codes/.