ED Coding and Reimbursement Alert

To accurately report burn diagnoses in ICD-10, you’ll need to be able to identify the correct burn-causing agent.

Use the burn codes for thermal burns (except sunburns), as well as burns from electricity or radiation. Thermal burns are defined as those coming from a heat source, such as fire or a hot appliance. 

Corrosions are burns due to chemicals. The coding guidelines are the same for both burns and corrosions, says Stacie Norris, MBA, CPC, CCS-P, Director of Coding Quality Assurance for Zotec Partners in Durham, NC. 

Key: Corrosions and thermal burns are classified by: depth, extent and agent. The agent for corrosions would be the chemical agent that caused them and the agent for thermal burns would be what caused the thermal burn, electricity or steam for example.

Check out the following burn ICD-10 coding example from Norris: 

A patient presents to the ED after suffering a burn to her forearm at home. The patient states she was cooking dinner in her home and while carrying a pot of boiling water to drain in the sink, some spilled onto her arm. The ED physician documents the clinical impression as: 2nd degree burn, left forearm. The ICD-10 codes for this case scenario are: 

1) T22.212A — (Burn of second degree of left forearm, initial encounter),
2) X12.xxxA — (Contact with other hot fluids, initial encounter)
3) Y93.G3 — (Activity, cooking and baking),
4) Y92.010 — (Kitchen of single-family [private] house as the place of occurrence of the external cause).