Wiki DM1 with background retinopathy

[jvanbk]

Hello! Can anyone with diabetes / ophthalmology experience help me? I am looking to assign the correct code for diabetes type 1 with background retinopathy. There is a code for unspecified retinopathy, but it isn't unspecified, it is "background". There is a code for other ophthalmic conditions, but that looks like it is used for non-retinopathy conditions.

Does background retinopathy not qualify as a real retinopathy?

What would be the correct code for background retinopathy?

Thanks very much!

Jennifer

 

[thomas7331]

"Background" is identified in the index under retinopathy as a parenthetic term or 'nonessential modifier' which per ICD-10 instructions does not affect coding. So I would not consider 'background retinopathy' as a specific type of retinopathy. If no additional information is documented, I would code this as unspecified retinopathy.

 

[erjones147]

Background retinopathy is nonproliferative

If no severity or macular edema are mentioned, I would code as E10.329x (where x is the laterality)