Use These Z Codes Primarily as Primary Diagnoses
Question: I have a rather odd claim in front of me. We are a small hospital in a very rural area. Last week, we had a major storm that knocked power out for a few minutes. During that time, the emergency department (ED) physician was called to care for a patient who was on a ventilator that stopped working briefly. Is there an ICD-10-CM code for this situation? Iowa Subscriber Answer: Amazingly, there’s a code for that: Z99.12 (Encounter for respirator [ventilator] dependence during power failure). In fact, this is one of the Z codes that you can only report as a primary diagnosis; Z codes are most often used as secondary diagnoses. According to the ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines, section: 1.C.21.c.16, certain there are certain Z codes/categories that may only be reported as the principal/first-listed diagnosis, “except when there are multiple encounters on the same day and the medical records for the encounters are combined.” One of those codes is Z99.12. For a complete list of Z codes/categories that may only be reported as the principal diagnosis (with some exceptions), check out the ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines. Some of the potentially ED-relevant code categories on this list are: Chris Boucher, MS, CPC, Senior Development Editor, AAPC
