Optometry Coding & Billing Alert
Emmetropia Diagnosis
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Reviewed May 18, 2015
Question: A patient has a diagnosis of -emmetropia.- A colleague told me that 367.9 was the appropriate diagnosis code. Is that correct?
Kansas Subscriber
Answer: No. There is no ICD-9 code that describes emmetropia, which is the normal refractive state of the eye, in which no refractive error is present.
However, ICD-9 code 367.9 (Unspecified disorder of refraction and accommodation) or ICD-10 code H52.7 (Unspecified disorder of refraction) is an appropriate diagnosis code for ametropia, a refractive error when viewing distant objects.
If the patient is indeed emmetropic, find out what brought him into the office, such as generalized eye pain (379.91, Unspecified disorder of eye and adnexa; pain in or around eye), ICD-10 H57.1-, Ocular pain, asthenopia (368.13, Visual discomfort) H53.14-, Visual discomfort or a headache (784.0) ICD-10 R51, Headache; or G44.1, Vascular headache, not elsewhere classified. Use the complaint to select the diagnosis code.
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