Pathology/Lab Coding Alert

Question: Our pathologist examined a breast biopsy and reported the diagnosis as “fibroadenosis” Is this a benign neoplasm, and should we report it as D24?

Colorado Subscriber

Answer: No, you should not report breast fibroadenosis using ICD-10-CM code D24.- (Benign neoplasm of breast). The confusion may stem from the similar diagnosis of “fibroadenoma,” which you should report as D24.-. In fact, if you turn to the ICD-10-CM category D24, you’ll see the term “adenofibrosis” under an Excludes2 note, which refers you to N60.2 for a fibroadenosis diagnosis.

Excludes2: Recall that ICD-10-CM uses the Excludes2 designation for something medically related to the main condition that may occur independently, and is separately reportable using a different ICD-10-CM code.

Do this: Turn to the suggested code under the Excludes2 note and select the most specific code under N60.2- (Fibroadenosis of breast) for this case. If you know whether the specimen is from the right or left breast, you can select N60.21 or N60.22, respectively. If you don’t have that laterality information, report N60.29 (Fibroadenosis of unspecified breast).

Study tip: You should study the variety of terms you may commonly encounter for similar benign breast conditions, because ICD-10-CM includes many disparate codes, such as the following:

• Breast adenoma D24.-
• Breast fibroadenoma D24.-
• Breast adenosis N60.2-
• Breast fibroadenosis N60.2-
• Breast fibrocystic changes N60.1- (Diffuse cystic mastopathy)
• Breast fibrosclerosis N60.3- (Fibrosclerosis of breast)