Wiki Z68.5 Pediatric Body Mass Codes

[carla3640]

I am questioning the age range for pediatrics listed in the BMI Coding. Z68.5 is for 2-20 years of age according to my code book. I have a practice manager insisting this is incorrect and the actual age range is 0-17 years old. Does anyone have any clarification on this?

 

[CodingKing]

ICD-10 book is gospel when it comes to ICD coding. Your practice manager should take that up with the ICD -10 committee.

Z68 Body mass index [BMI]

Kilograms per meters squared

Notes: BMI adult codes are for use for persons 21 years of age or older
BMI pediatric codes are for use for persons 2-20 years of age. These percentiles are based on the growth charts published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

So it appears ICD does not follow the WHO growth charts.

http://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts/who_charts.htm

Recommendation

CDC recommends that health care providers:
•Use the WHO growth charts to monitor growth for infants and children ages 0 to 2 years of age in the U.S.
•Use the CDC growth charts to monitor growth for children age 2 years and older in the U.S.

While I don't think claim would be denied if used for 0-2 but this will throw off health statistics which is a more important reason to code correctly than reimbursement reasons.

 

[carla3640]

Thank you!

Thank you for the much needed information to back up what I was attempting to explain.