Wiki V Codes-work for an orthopedic

[hdearman]

I work for an orthopedic office and would love clarification on V Codes! According to ICD guidlines (I.C.18.e) only a select amount of V Codes are ok as diagnoses on their own-most of them I would never use in our office. However, when I was researching V Codes for orthopedic aftercare, it states that once the fracture (for example) has been corrected and is healing, that a V Code takes its place as the primary diagnoses. If these are allowed as a primary diagnoses, why are they not included in the I.C.18.e list? Or should the initial fracture DX now follow the aftercare V Code?

 

[mitchellde]

I work for an orthopedic office and would love clarification on V Codes! According to ICD guidlines (I.C.18.e) only a select amount of V Codes are ok as diagnoses on their own-most of them I would never use in our office. However, when I was researching V Codes for orthopedic aftercare, it states that once the fracture (for example) has been corrected and is healing, that a V Code takes its place as the primary diagnoses. If these are allowed as a primary diagnoses, why are they not included in the I.C.18.e list? Or should the initial fracture DX now follow the aftercare V Code?

The list you are looking at are those that can only be used first listed. Some are secondary only which you find in the section for that particular category, but then everything else is first listed or secondary allowed. As far as stand alone, many V codes may be stand alone codes. Those that include an instruction to add another code must be paired with another code. The codes for aftercare for healing fracture. Are first listed allowed and do not need additional codes. It has always been the rule that after initial treatment the fracture is to be coded with the V code only, do not use the acute V code again. This was also reintegrated in a coding clinic in 2001. Each time you use the fracture code you are communicating to the payer that the patient has sustained a new fracture.
ICD-10 CM changes this. You do not use the Z codes for follow up for injury, which is why they have the 7th characters for encounter. But for now you always use the V codes for aftercare and not the injury code.