Neurosurgery Coding Alert

Hint: Let disease type guide you to the right code.Neurofibromatosis may pop up as a diagnosis if your surgeon performs reduction surgery to reduce the size of a neurofibroma. Look to the guidance that follows to select appropriate neurofibromatosis code by type. Look at Definitive Diagnosis to Confirm Type 1 Neurofibromatosis type 1 is also called the von Recklinghausen's disease. This is one of the common types of neurofibromatosis that you will be reporting. Your clinician will clearly document the findings in the clinical record sheet and you will carefully read through to confirm that based on the clinical examination your clinician has made a diagnosis. ICD-9: You report 237.71 (Neurofibromatosis type 1 von Recklinghausen's disease) when your clinician has been able to definitively document that the patient had von Recklinghausen's disease. When ICD-10 is effective, you will report Q85.01 (Neurofibromatosis, type 1). The only difference in these codes is [...]