Look for Close Malignant Skin Neoplasm Crosswalk
Melanoma and more report to different codes. Not a lot will change once you start reporting malignant skin neoplasms with ICD-10, but we have the low-down on a few key differences to keep your diagnosis coding on track for skin biopsy and excision cases. Recall:
Stay the Course for Excludes/Includes
Both C44 in ICD-10 and 173 in ICD-9 (
Other and unspecified malignant neoplasm of skin) include malignant neoplasm of sebaceous glands. The two code families also share the same condition exclusions, as follows:- Kaposi's sarcoma of skin (C46.0) (176.0-176.9)
- melanoma of skin (C43.-) (172.0-172.9)
- neoplasm of skin of genital organs (C51-C52, C60.-, C63.2) (184.0-184.9, 187.1-187.9)
- Merkel cell carcinoma of skin (C4A.-) (209.31-209.36).
Expect Greater ICD-10 Site Detail
You'll find a direct crosswalk between
other and unspecified neoplasm of skin codes for ICD-9 and ICD-10 at the fourth-character level, as follows:- 173.0 -- ...
You'll also find fifth-character agreement between ICD-9 and ICD-10 for these codes, as follows:
- 0 --
Embrace the difference:
The one significant change from ICD-9 to ICD-10 for these codes is the addition of a sixth character to further zero in on the lesion site.For bilateral sites (eyelid, C44.1_; ear, C44.2_; upper limb, C44.6_; lower limb, C44.7_) you'll have the following three choices for sixth characters:
1 --
unspecified2 -- right
9 -- left.
The sixth character definitions are a little different form some sites, as follows:
- C44.3_ -- ...
1 --
unspecified2 -- nose
9 -- other parts of face
- C44.5_ -- ...
1 --
anal/perianal2 -- breast
9 -- other part of trunk.
There are no sixth character options for C44.0_, C44.4_, C44.8_ and C44.9_.
