Need ICD for Hypertensive Emergency

you cannot use 401.0 based on the wording of hypertensive emergency the physician must stated malignant, otherwise all hypertension codes to 401.9
 
hypertensive emergency

I have one more doubt. ICD 401.0 is also used for accelarated hypertension ( Suddenly elevated blood pressure ) which can most appropriately represents hypertensive emergency. So why shouldn't 401.0 and only 401.9 ?

:confused:
 
Because we cannot assume we know a diagnosis. The provider did not say the patient has malignant hypertension so we do not assign this dx. The dx is the patient's not ours and we are the physician. If the provider does not render a dx that allows us to code a certain, we cannot read into it what we want in order to get the dx code we feel is more appropriate.
 
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