Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Compounding Disaster - July 2016 - Subscribe to Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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J U l y 2 0 1 6 • O U T PA T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T • 3 7 M51.34 Other intervertebral disc degeneration, thoracic region M51.35 Other intervertebral disc degeneration, thoracolumbar region M51.36 Other intervertebral disc degeneration, lumbar region M51.37 Other intervertebral disc degeneration, lumbosacral region ICD-10 Degenerative Disc Disease Diagnosis Codes The higher level of detail in ICD-10 codes lets you more precisely code the diagnosis. Take degenerative disc dis- ease (DDD), for example. In ICD-9, a diagnosis of DDD with no mention of the anatomical site was coded as 722.6, Degeneration intervertebral disc site, unspecified. For ICD-10, you must code all claims to the highest level of speci- ficity. Note that the unspecified code in ICD-9-CM does not map to an unspeci- fied option in ICD-10-CM. There isn't a degenerative intervertebral disc site unspecified in ICD-10-CM, since physi- cians know the specific level of the degeneration if their intent is to treat the site, as the table below shows. — Cristina Bentin, CCS-P, COC, CMA DETAIL YOUR DIAGNOSIS ICD-10-CM's Heightened Level of Specificity • BE SPECIFIC Your providers may be used to providing unspecific documentation, but moving forward you'll receive more denials if they don't detail their diagnoses.

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