Home Health ICD-9/ICD-10 Alert

Question: Our patient injected too much insulin and experienced dizziness and blurred vision. Which ICD-9 code(s) should we report for this?

-- Tennessee Subscriber

Answer: Injecting too much insulin is considered a poisoning. Assuming that the patient injected too much insulin accidentally, the appropriate codes for this situation are:

• 962.3 (Poisoning by insulins and antidiabetic agents);
• 250.80 (Diabetic hypoglycemia; type II or unspecified type, not stated as uncontrolled); and
• E858.0 (Accidental poisoning by other drugs; hormones and synthetic substitutes).