Coding Alert – Diagnosis Descriptions

by Nicoleta Rahovan Lead Coder CPC CANPC

It’s October and as coders, we know this is the month when the ICD-10-CM for 2020 diagnosis codes are being implemented.  Starting with October 1st DOS we need to make sure we correctly incorporate the updated 2020 ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes to avoid denials or delayed payments.

The new 2020 diagnosis codes contains 15 codes with a change in validity; 7 codes deleted from the classification; 273 new codes added to the classification and 30 code descriptions have been revised.

There are 72,184 ICD-10-CM codes for fiscal year 2020 compared to 71,932 for fiscal year 2019, according to the American Health Information Management Association.

It is imperative that when submitting your charges, you include the appropriate diagnosis description so we can code them properly.