2002 Diagnosis Codes Are More Specific Describing Asthma, Womens Conditions
Published on Sat Dec 01, 2001
Family practice coding professionals will rely on a number of important new and revised diagnosis codes describing sunburn, asthma and several women's health problems during 2002, says Daniel S. Fick, MD, director of risk management and compliance for the College of Medicine faculty practice at the University of Iowa. "There are a number of ICD-9 codes for 2002 that have been developed to better define several conditions that family physicians treat on a regular basis," he says. "Most family physicians will welcome these new codes."
Fifth Digit Revised for Asthma Subcategory
Revisions to the fifth-digit subclassification for the asthma subcategory 493 are among the most important changes for family practices, Fick says. The description for the 0 in this position has been revised to read, "without mention of status asthmaticus or acute exacerbation or unspecified." Previously a fifth digit of "0" in this category indicated "without mention of status asthmaticus."
When a patient presents with extrinsic asthma in 2002, for instance, family practices will assign 493.01 if the patient's condition is status asthmaticus, 493.02 if the condition is acute exacerbation, or 493.00 for an unspecified condition. This code change will make it easier for physicians to report a generic diagnosis when appropriate, Fick notes, but it should not be used as a dump code when more specific diagnostic information is available.
New Codes Affect Mammography
New codes related to women's health conditions are important, he says. Code 256.3 (other ovarian failure) has been augmented with new codes 256.31 (premature menopause) and 256.39 (other ovarian failure). "These 2002 ICD-9 codes provide greater specificity when a woman undergoes premature menopause and allow us to highlight the cause for the condition," he says. Because of these changes, V49.81 (postmenopausal status, age-related, natural) has also been revised to exclude 256.31. V49.81 is intended to be used only as a status code when a patient has no symptoms, while 256.31 describes a patient's condition when she has premature menopause and symptoms such as hot flashes.
A second important change in women's health coding affects mammography, says Kent Moore, manager of Health Care Financing and Delivery Systems for the American Academy of Family Physicians. Code 793.8 (nonspecific abnormal findings on radiological and other examinations of body structure, breast) has been enhanced with three new codes: 793.80 (unspecified abnormal mammogram), 793.81 (mammographic microcalcification) and 793.89 (other abnormal findings on radiological examination of breast).
GI Code Changes
Moore says there are also several noteworthy changes to gastrointestinal coding, including four new codes. Code 564.0 (constipation) has been deleted and replaced with four new codes: 564.00 (unspecified constipation), 564.01 (slow transit constipation), 564.02 (outlet dysfunction constipation) and 564.09 (other constipation). A new code, 530.12, has also been added for acute [...]
