![]() In fact, you can use it on multiple claims.ĭ – Subsequent encounter. So, you can use “A” as the seventh character on more than just the first claim. This describes the entire period in which a patient is receiving active treatment for the injury, poisoning, or other consequences of an external cause. Seventh character extensions for injuries (not including fractures) include:Ī – Initial encounter. So, if a code has fewer than six characters and requires a seventh character extension, you must fill in all of the empty character spaces with a placeholder “X.” The extension character must always be in the seventh position. To determine which categories are seventh-character eligible, you’ll have to refer to the Tabular List of codes-though most of these codes are found in Chapter 19 (Injury, poisoning and certain other consequences of external causes), Chapter 15 (Pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium), and sometimes Chapter 13 (Diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue). According to CMS, it “provide information about the characteristic of the encounter.” You can only assign the seventh character to specific codes in certain ICD-10-CM categories, however. So, in this case, the numbers “0,” “1,” and “1” indicate a diagnosis of “Strain of the right Achilles tendon.”įinally, there’s the seventh character: the extension. The next three characters (characters three through six) indicate the related etiology (i.e., the cause, set of causes, or manner of causation of a disease or condition), anatomic site, severity, or other vital clinical details. In this case, however, greater specificity is possible, and you should fill in as many “blanks” as you can. “S,” used in conjunction with the numerals “8” and “6,” indicates that the diagnosis falls into the category of “Injury of muscle, fascia and tendon at lower leg.” A three-character category that has no further subdivision (i.e., no greater specificity) can stand alone as a code. In this instance, the letter “S” designates that the diagnosis relates to “Injuries, poisoning and certain other consequences of external causes related to single body regions.” The first three characters of the ICD-10 code structure designate the category of the diagnosis. The first character is always alpha (i.e., a letter), but characters two through seven can be either alpha or numeric. ![]() The more characters there are, the more specific the diagnosis. The First Six Characters of the ICD-10 Code StructureĬodes in the ICD-10-CM code set can have anywhere from three to seven characters. ![]() So, let’s tear into the ICD-10 coding structure and learn about it piece by piece. The ICD-10 head-scratching stops today-at least with respect to the ICD-10 code structure-because the codes are segmented in a standardized fashion, which means they break down into smaller (and less intimidating) bite-sized pieces. ICD-10-CM has been the standard diagnosis coding set for a while now-the implementation of ICD-10 was in 2015, after all-but the tenth revision is still complicated enough to cause the occasional head-scratch for members of the healthcare community. ![]()
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