tci General Surgery Coding Alert - 2005 Issue 8

Prepare Now for Upcoming ICD-9 Revisions

V codes provide greater specificity for family and personal history of disease The May 4 Federal Register included a complete list of more than 140 new ICD-9 codes for 2006, along with over a dozen code deletions and 25 code revisions. As in past years, the trend is toward greater diagnosis specificity.Example: Now, you can simply report a diagnosis of dehydration, but starting in October, surgeons will have to distinguish between unspecified volume depletion (276.50), dehydration (276.51) and hypovolemia (276.52). Adding specificity to diagnosis coding "is very much a conscious effort," says Amy Blum...

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