Monday, April 9, 2012

ICD-10 Update: You'll Be Required to Be More Precise with Muscle and Connective Tissue Disorders When ICD-10 Hits

ICD9 Codes

Pay attention to the site of involvement.

While you're coding for ligament disorders, palmar fascia contracture, foreign body granulomas, and muscle spasm, your ICD-10 code choices will increase substantially. Read on for advice on how to best describe these and other common connective tissue conditions.

Get Clinical Staff Used to Even More Specifics

To prepare doctors for this level of detail, you must start training now. Before the ICD-10 implementation date, coders will require educating their physicians on the need for a much higher degree of specificity in their diagnostic statements.

Identify Discrete Codes for Paraplegia, Fibromatoses

The ICD-9 codes for definite muscle disorders like 728.3 (Other specific muscle disorders) which includes disorders like athrogryposis and immobility syndrome (paraplegic) translate to two different ICD-10 codes. The ICD-10 code for immobility syndrome is M62.3 (Immobility syndrome [paraplegic]) and that for other specific disorders is M62.89 (Other specified disorders of muscle). "Immobility syndrome has been awarded a specific code for ICD-10, while ‘other specified disorders of the muscle' has been left undefined to capture the remainder of the unspecified muscle disorders.

The ICD-9 code used for fibrosis in muscle ligaments, 728.79 (Other fibromatoses of muscle ligament and fascia), extends to a couple of ICD-10 codes as below:

  • M72.1 (Knuckle pads)
  • M72.4 (Pseudosarcomatous fibromatosis)

Narrow Down To a Common Code for Ligament Disorders

The ligament disorder code in ICD-10 is more generalized for including a broader array of ligament disorders. While the ICD-9 code 728.4 (Laxity of ligament) was exclusively descriptive of ligament laxity, the ICD-10 code M24.20 (Disorder of ligament, unspecified site) defines ‘disorder of ligament'. This means that disorders other than a lax ligament can be reported with this code.

There is a wider scope for the ICD-10 codes M62.89 (Other specified disorders of muscle). The disorder can be in muscle tendons, fascia, ligament, or aponeurosis. The ICD-9 code 728.89 (Other disorders of muscle ligament and fascia), on the other hand, is more specific for ligament and fascia.

As far as the unspecified disorders of the connective tissues are concerned, you have ICD9 codes 728.9 (Unspecified disorder of muscle ligament and fascia). In ICD-10, you will go for code M62.9 (Disorder of muscle, unspecified). ICD-10 has listed a code definite to the muscle alone. There is also a definite code for disorder of ligament for ICD-10. The ligamentous disorder code is broken down by location, RT vs LT, with unspecified code for each body area when RT and LT are not listed. Coders can now be more definite as the actual tissue affected.

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