Primary Care Coding Alert

Shifting from 724.2 to M54.5 shouldn't cause too much pain.

If your family physician often diagnoses patients with low back pain (724.2, Lumbago), you'll have a few code changes to keep in mind once ICD-10 goes into effect in 2013.

Currently, you report 724.2 for low back pain, low back syndrome, or lumbalgia. Coding instructions direct you to 737.0-737.9 for curvature of the spine and to 732.0 or 732.8 for juvenile or adult osteochondrosis of the spine.

ICD-10 difference: Diagnosis 724.2 will change to M54.5 (Low back pain). The code includes loin pain and lumbago NOS.

Coding tip: Don't automatically assign M54.5 for any condition related to low back pain. You'll look to the next family of codes, for example, when reporting lumbago with sciatica (M54.4x). When coding for low back strain, you'll dig even deeper to S39.012 (Injury of muscle, fascia and tendon of abdomen, lower back and pelvis; strain of muscle, fascia and tendon of lower back).