Urology Coding Alert

998.11 expands to several codes, but you may only need four.

When your urologist notes in his documentation that he performed a procedure, such as a circumcision revision, because the patient had bleeding (hemorrhage) problems, you typically report ICD-9 998.11 (Hemorrhage complicating a procedure) as one of your diagnosis codes.

Once ICD-10 Codes rolls around (note that the implementation date is still up in the air), you will have to review your urologist's documentation for additional specifics about the location and timing of the hemorrhage.

Here's why: Code 998.11 expands into more than 55 new codes. The new codes indicate whether the hemorrhage occurred during the operative session with the descriptors noting "Intraoperative hemorrhage and hematoma of ..." or after the procedure, with the wording "Postprocedural hemorrhage and hematoma of ...."

You'll also need to know the location of the bleeding, as the ICD-10 codes designate a anatomical type of procedure that leads to the hemorrhage, such as "J95.830, Postprocedural hemorrhage and hematoma of a respiratory system organ or structure following a respiratory system procedure" and "L76.02, Intraoperative hemorrhage and hematoma of skin and subcutaneous tissue complicating other procedure." The following four codes are specific to the genitourinary system:

• N99.61 -- Intraoperative hemorrhage and hematoma of a genitourinary system organ or structure complicating a genitourinary system procedure
• N99.62 -- ... other procedure
• N99.820 -- Postprocedural hemorrhage and hematoma of a genitourinary system organ or structure following a genitourinary system procedure
• N99.821 -- ... other procedure.