Primary Care Coding Alert

Your coding options explode with ICD-10. When your family physician diagnoses varicose veins with ulcers, under ICD-9 you report 454.0 (Varicose veins of lower extremities with ulcer). Once ICD-10 is implemented, you'll need to pay closer attention to the documentation, because your code choices will be based on more exact anatomic sites. Those options include: I83.009 -- Varicose veins of unspecified lower extremity with ulcer of unspecified site I83.019 -- Varicose veins of right lower extremity with ulcer of unspecified site I83.029 -- Varicose veins of left lower extremity with ulcer of unspecified site. Explanation: In essence, the fifth character will indicate which extremity (if specified) is involved, and the sixth character will specify the site of the ulcer on that extremity. Also, you will need to use a code from the L97.- series to identify the severity of the ulcer. For instance, if the ulcer is on the right thigh and limited [...]