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Primary Care Coding Alert

Diagnosis Coding:

Ratchet Up Your E Code Know How to Clinch Medical Necessity, Fully Document Accidents and Injuries

Published on Mon Jun 04, 2012

Tip: Never list E codes as primary diagnoses. Accidents happen, and your physicians probably see the evidence in patients of all ages. Round out your diagnosis coding for accidental injuries by adding 'E codes' to your ICD-9 roster, and you can speed up your claims processing by painting a more complete picture. Put E Codes in Their Place E codes represent external causes of injury and poisoning. According to the section introduction, E codes are "provided to permit the classification of environmental events, circumstances, and conditions as the cause of injury, poisoning, and other adverse effects." Important: The guidelines specify that you should report applicable E codes "in addition to a code from one of the main chapters of ICD-9-CM, indicating the nature of the condition." "E codes must be secondary to the primary diagnosis code," says Holly Braddy with Danvers Family Doctors in Danvers, Ma. "I don't have any [...]
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