Neurology & Pain Management Coding Alert

Tip: Don't limit yourself to just one ICD-9 code.If you don't know what differentiates an acute condition from a chronic one, or how many diagnosis codes you can report, you could find yourself assigning the wrong code. Check out two common questions to get quick tips to help your pain management ICD-9 coding.Do Injury Codes Apply to Pain?Question 1: When can I report an acute injury ICD-9 code rather than a chronic injury code? We see patients for generalized pain (not necessarily a recent injury) and aren't sure what to code.Answer 1: When coding some conditions, such as kidney disease (584.x and 585.x), you can often easily determine when the patient's condition is chronic because the diagnosis codes differ based on the patient's lab results. But coding for pain can be trickier.For example, suppose your patient presents with shoulder pain, which came on slowly, that she says she has had [...]