Thursday, August 11, 2011

ICD-10 Updates: Combination Code for Coronary Atherosclerosis With Angina Pectoris

In a couple of years' time, when you start using ICD-10 codes, watch out for a combination code that covers more than one diagnosis.

For the uninitiated, atherosclerosis is a type of arteriosclerosis characterized by fatty plague deposits that restricts the blood flow through the arteries. Angina pectoris refers to chest pain or discomfort caused by coronary heart disease.

When you report coronary arteriosclerosis in ICD-10-CM, you will notice some differences from the present ICD-9-CM coding. As already mentioned, when you hop into the ICD-10 bandwagon, you should be ready for a combination code that covers more than one diagnosis:

ICD-10 combines your coding for native coronary atherosclerosis and angina pectoris.

Under ICD-9-CM, you use 414.01, coronary atherosclerosis of native coronary artery

Under ICD-10-CM , you will use I25.10, I25.110, I25.111, I25.118, and I25.119.

So what's different between the two code sets: The main change ICD-10 will bring is that they differ based on 'without' (I25.10) and "with" (I25.11-) angina pectoris.

ICD-10 rules, just like its predecessor ICD-9, indicate you should report an additional code (I25.82) if the patient also suffers from chronic total occlusion of a coronary artery. To add to it, if the patient has coronary atherosclerosis because of lipid rich plague, you should go for I25.83. For codes in the range for ischemic heart diseases (I20- I25), you should go for an additional code to identify presence of hypertension (I10-I15).

Clinicians should know that the presence of angina pectoris will alter your native coronary artery disease coding. While documenting, they should be specific about whether the angina pectoris is unstable, with documented spasm or for that matter another form. Documentation should also point to whether the patient has chronic hypertension, total coronary occlusion, and/or coronary atherosclerosis caused by lipid rich plaque.

Tips for coders: Modify coding tools; bear in mind that ICD-10 offers a combination code for coronary atherosclerosis with angina pectoris.

Source Code :- http://www.supercoder.com

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