General Surgery Coding Alert

ICD-9 2011 creates one-to-one ICD-10 correspondence.

When your surgeon removes a foreign body, you'll need to document the item with a corresponding diagnosis code. Switching the primary code from ICD-9 to ICD-10 will be easy enough once the new code set is active in Oct. 2013.

For instance: For a foreign body embedded in a granuloma of the skin and subcutaneous tissue, you should use the appropriate code from one of the two code sets:

• ICD-9 -- 709.4 (Foreign body granuloma of skin and subcutaneous tissue)
• ICD-10 -- L92.3 (Foreign body granuloma of the skin and subcutaneous tissue).

Look for 'Additional Code' Crosswalk

An ICD-10 note following L92.3 instructs you to "Use additional code to identify the type of retained foreign body (Z18-)." Prior to 2011, you didn't have any additional codes to report with 709.4 for ICD-9. But you'll find a new text note, along with 14 new V codes in ICD-9 2011 that parallel ICD-10. The new ICD-9 note states, "Use additional code to identify foreign body (V90.01-V90.9)."

Identify the Foreign Body

Here are the ICD-9 and ICD-10 foreign body additional codes in a one-to-one crosswalk listed with the code definition, which is identical in each code set: