Neurology & Pain Management Coding Alert

You should keep an eye open for new and revised ICD-9 codes for 2005, which become effective Oct. 1, 2004. Several additions could affect neurology practices, including the following new diagnoses:

066.41 - West Nile Fever with encephalitis
066.42 - West Nile Fever with other neurologic manifestation
347.00 - Narcolepsy, without cataplexy
347.01 - Narcolepsy, with cataplexy
347.10 - Narcolepsy in conditions classified elsewhere, without cataplexy
347.11 - Narcolepsy in conditions classified elsewhere, with cataplexy. Previously, ICD-9 provided a single three-digit code, 347, to describe "cataplexy and narcolepsy" and lumped the two new West Nile codes together with several others as a part of 066.42. "As usual, the new [ICD-9] codes allow physicians to report diagnoses less ambiguously and in greater detail than before," says Neil Busis, MD, chief of the division of neurology and director of the neurodiagnostic laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center at Shadyside, and clinical associate professor in the department of neurology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine You can view the complete list of additions and revisions online at www.cms.hhs.gov/medlearn/icd9code.asp#coding.