General Surgery Coding Alert

Alcoholic ascites diversifies ICD-10.When you start using ICD-10 in 2013, the new code set won't always offer a simple one-to-one relationship to the old codes. You might have additional options that may require tweaking the way your surgeon documents a service and the way a coder reports it.Consider this: Under ICD-9, your go-to code for cancer-related ascites is 789.51 (Malignant ascites) and for ascites related to any other condition you turn to 789.59 (Other ascites).ICD-10 change: ICD-10 does things a little differently. True, there is a oneto-one corresponding code with the same definition for each of these -- R18.0 (Malignant ascites) and R18.8 (Other ascites). But an "excludes" note following R18 lets you in on a little secret: ICD-10 has two other codes for ascites related to specific conditions that shouldn't fall under "other ascites" code R18.8:K70.11 -- Alcoholic hepatitis with ascitesK70.31 -- Alcoholic cirrhosis of liver with ascites.The corresponding ICD-9 codes (571.1, [...]