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Pathology/Lab Coding Alert

Reader Questions:

Identify Drug-Resistant Infections

Published on Sat Jan 01, 2005

Question: Our lab is seeing a rise in cultures that identify penicillin-resistant staph infection. How should we code this?

Minnesota Subscriber

Answer: Your experience matches epidemiological reports that show an increase in drug-resistant staph infections across North America. While you have to report the most specific ICD-9 code for the organism you identify, that alone is not enough. You need to apply an additional code to indicate the drug resistance of the strain.

When you identify methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), you should report 041.11 (Staphylococcus aureus) and V09.0 (Infection with drug-resistant microorganisms; infection with microorganisms resistant to penicillins ). ICD-9 specifically lists MRSA as an example of this code. A text note explains that you should use the V09-category codes in addition to the code that classifies the infectious condition.
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