General Surgery Coding Alert

When your surgeon removes a foreign body from the digestive tract and doesn’t specify the site (such as stomach or colon), you have just one code choice in ICD-9. 

 

But you’ll need to know more so that you can choose the correct code for this condition when ICD-10 becomes effective on Oct. 1, 2015.

 

Compare the Crosswalk

 

The correct ICD-9 code for a foreign body in an unspecified location in the digestive system is 938 (Foreign body in digestive system unspecified). ICD-9 adds these words to further describe the code: Alimentary tract NOS [not otherwise specified], or Swallowed foreign body.

 

When you change to ICD-10, you’ll need to use this code: T18.9 (Foreign body of alimentary tract, part unspecified), which includes the following:

Caveat: You’ll need to know more to correctly code this condition once ICD-10 goes into effect. That’s because ICD-10 requires a seventh digit for this code, which indicates the encounter sequence for the foreign body as follows: