ICD-9-CM and ICD-10-CM ? A Review

Posted by Deepak Sanghi on November 17th, 2017

When it comes to medical coding, you will often have to choose between ICD-9-CM and ICD-10-CM. The former is often affected by the absence of specific information—like in the case of the same code for opposite limbs that have similar injuries—and this often causes confusion. ICD-10 medical coding provides a better degree of detailed information in areas, like left versus right, subsequent or initial encounter, and other important clinical information. This way, it is easier for medical and insurance professionals to discern details and make informed decisions.

Because it seeks to provide more details, ICD-10 medical coding has around 68,000 codes, and there is room for more. This is not the case with ICD-9 and its 13,000 codes, which has limited room for additions. The codes may be a bit different, so a coder may need to determine how to search for codes effectively under ICD-10-CM. Take note that it uses codes that tend to be longer than the ones in ICD-9, but they follow a basic structure based on the following:

• The first, second, and third digits refer to the category
• The first digit is always a letter
• The second and third digits are always numbers
• Digits four to six refer to clinical details (i.e. anatomic site, etiology, and severity), and can either be numeric or alphabetic
• The seventh digit is the extension, when necessary, and can either be numeric or alphabetic.

ICD-10 medical coding supports a combination of codes used to identify concepts such as diagnosis with complications or multiple diagnoses. This time, they are depicted as single codes, with a minimal amount of codes, yet still capable of providing as much specific details as possible. ICD-10 is alphanumeric to provide more specific information. Characters are not case-sensitive, so alphanumeric codes can maintain identical meanings throughout the procedure sections and code sets. Additional characters enable more information to be included, such as the root operation, body system, approach, body part, device, and other important qualifier in single code for surgical procedures.

ICD-9 is considered outdated when compared to ICD-10 medical coding, as the codes are unable to depict the application of new equipment. With ICD-10-CM, you can easily include information on modern devices used for medical procedures.

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