New Choice to Boost your Diagnosis Coding

ICD-9 Codes 2011 going to effect in October, and here new ‘attention deficit’ to boost your Diagnosis Coding

The 2011 ICD-9 codes going into effect on October 1 have a few welcome additions for younger patients. Here are some examples of new diagnoses you could find yourself reporting on a regular basis.

Attention deficit options provide a better starting point ICD-9 2011 adds the 799.5x family to the ‘I’ll defined and unknown causes of morbidity and mortality’ section. The just-arrived codes include:

799.51 -- Attention or concentration deficit

799.52 -- Cognitive communication deficit

799.53 -- Visuospatial deficit

799.54 -- Psychomotor deficit

799.55 -- Frontal lobe and executive function deficit

799.59 -- Other signs and symptoms involving cognition.

This new series will be useful for symptoms and signs as a diagnosis before the doctor establishes a definitive diagnosis. Physicians treat children with concerns regarding attention or activity. You do not have sufficinet information after the first visit for an official diagnosis; but then you still need something to report.

V codes address retained fragments

ICD-9 2011 also comes up with a series of specific V codes for diferent types of retained fragments. The series (V90.01- V90.9) address objects ranging from metal, plastic or wood to animal quills or spines, glass, teeth, and other specified foreign bodies, including radioactive fragments.

Remember that you won’t report a code for foreign body removal in conjunction with V90.x. These foreign bodies are retained. You will deal with it in terms of the patient’s history and physical, however not an actual procedure to remove the object.

Want to know more about these attention deficit choices and other 2011 ICD-9 code(http://www.supercoder.com/icd9-codes/) changes? Just stay tuned to a medical coding guide like Supercoder.