Wiki Osteoarthritis of hands and spine

[molivarez]

I am currently experiencing a back and forth discussion regarding the correct ICD 10 codes to report when the provider has documented Osteoarthritis of the hands and spine.

Chapter 13: Diseases of the Musculoskeletal System and Connective Tissue states the following about site and laterality

Most of the codes within Chapter 13 have site and liberality designations. The site represents the bone, joint, or the muscle involved. For some conditions where more than one bone, joint or muscle is usually involved, such as osteoarthritis there is a "multiple sites" code available. For categories where no multiple code is provided and more than one bone, joint or muscle is involved, multiple codes should be used to indicate the different sites involved.

What would the correct code(s) assignment be?

 

[MI_CODER]

The way that I understand this guideline is if your documentation states the patient has osteoarthritis of the hands and spine then you would want to use the "multiple sites" code and not individually code each site.

According to the guideline, we should use the "multiple sites" code if available. If there is a category that doesn't have a "multiple sites" code then that is when you would want to individually code each site.