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ICD-10 Changes coming up this October 1st, 2021

Get a better understanding of the upcoming ICD-10 Coding changes,

so you can be ready, prevent delays in your payments and run your medical practice smoothly.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the ICD-10-CM code descriptions, tables, index, and addendum for the upcoming fiscal year 2022.

The update brings 159 additions, 25 deletions, and 27 revisions. These 2022 ICD-10-CM codes are to be used for discharges occurring from October 1, 2021 through September 30, 2022 and for patient encounters occurring from October 1, 2021 through September 30, 2022.

It is important that healthcare providers are aware of these changes so they can prevent payment delays and ensure they are getting paid for their work.

Let´s review some highlights:

Factors influencing health status and contact with health services

There are major updates on Chapter 21 (Z00-Z99 codes). The pandemic has emphasized the importance of this information, that might not be purely medical, but is certainly affecting individual and populations health outcomes.

These ICD-10 changes include 22 new codes on this chapter. 13 of these codes related to housing insecurity, food insecurity and education level.

As the CDC stated, “coding professionals may utilize documentation of social information from social workers, community health workers, case managers, or nurses, if their documentation is included in the official medical record”.

Cough types and cell therapy

The CDC added 6 new codes to identify the different typed of coughs (acute, subacute, chronic, and others). These were added into the R05: Cough hierarchy that defines those characteristics of a cough.

On this section, there were also added 12 codes for complications of immune effector cellular therapy, immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome, and a personal history of cellular therapy.

ICD-10 Changes related to COVID-19 Impact

With the still going pandemic, COVID-19 related codes continue to be added to the codes set with two new U codes for Post-COVID condition and Post-COVID condition, unspecified.

In this category, the ICD-10 changes included the new Z code Z71.85 for identifying immunization safety counseling as a reason for an encounter provided on or after October 1st, 2021.

Be sure you check the official code set for note and instruction updates on the codes or procedures that might affect your medical practice.

For more information about these changes, download the tabular order, addendum, code tables and index on the CMS website.

Healthcare providers also need to be aware of the ICD-10-CM Official Coding and Reporting Guidelines for 2022 fiscal year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced these guidelines will become effective with October 1st, 2021 discharges/visits.

If you want to know how to be on top of the ICD-10 changes to ensure you are getting paid for your work, feel free to contact us at [email protected].

Make sure you subscribe to our Health Prime blog. Stay tuned on all the latest updates on how to improve your medical practice so you can focus on what matters the most: your patients.

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