Inside Angle
From 3M Health Information Systems
ICD-10 coding challenge: Updated coding guideline A.15 “With”
A 47-year-old patient was admitted to the hospital with a chief complaint of an ulcer at the base of his left great toe. Patient has a history of diabetes mellitus, type 2, nephropathy with CKD stage 3, GERD, asthma and esophagitis. The patient’s medications include insulin, a proton pump inhibitor and a steroid inhaler. After examination, it was determined that this was a diabetic foot ulcer with exposure of the fat layer. The wound was cultured and the patient was placed on IV antibiotics. Two days later the patient was taken to the Operating Room for an excisional debridement of the ulcer down to the bone. The patient was discharged from the hospital on day #5 with a diagnosis of poorly controlled diabetes mellitus with diabetic foot ulcer and acute osteomyelitis. The patient is sent home with IV antibiotic therapy and instructions to follow up in outpatient Wound Clinic for outpatient treatment of the ulcer. Please assign diagnosis and procedure codes for this scenario.
ANSWERS
E11.621 Type 2 diabetes mellitus with foot ulcer
L97.522 Non-pressure chronic ulcer of other part of left foot with fat layer exposed
E11.65 Type 2 diabetes mellitus with hyperglycemia
Z79.4 Long term (current) use of insulin
E11.69 Type 2 diabetes mellitus with other specified complication
M86.172 Other acute osteomyelitis, left ankle and foot
Z79.2 Long term use of antibiotics
E11.21 Type 2 diabetes mellitus with diabetic nephropathy
E11.22 Type 2 diabetes mellitus with diabetic chronic kidney disease
N18.3 Chronic kidney disease, stage 3
K21.0 Gastro-esophageal reflux disease with esophagitis
J45.909 Unspecified asthma, uncomplicated
Z79.51 Long term use of inhaled steroids
0KBW0ZZ Excision of left foot muscle open approach
BLOG RESPONSE
This month’s scenario provides us with an opportunity to examine the updated Guideline A.15 “With” in the FY 2017 ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting effective October 1, 2016. The updated guideline states that “the classification presumes a causal relationship between the two conditions linked by these terms in the Alphabetic Index or Tabular List. These conditions should be coded as related even in the absence of provider documentation explicitly linking them, unless the documentation clearly states the conditions are unrelated. For conditions not specifically linked by these relational terms in the classification, provider documentation must link the conditions in order to code them as related.”
In this scenario, the nephropathy, chronic kidney disease and osteomyelitis are not explicitly linked to diabetes mellitus by the provider. However, these three conditions are indexable under the main term, Diabetes, subterm, With, which is a perfect example of the classification presuming a causal relationship.
The same goes for GERD and esophagitis. These diagnoses are not linked in the provider documentation but the index presumes a causal relationship (see Disease, Gastroesophageal, With esophagitis).
Sue Belley, RHIA is a clinical content development manager with the consulting services business of 3M Health Information Systems.
Osteomyelitis is not included in the subterms under “with” under the main term Diabetes in the ICD-10-CM Codebook Index. However, in the 2nd paragrapgh of your blog response, you include osteomyelitits as one of the three conditions that are indexable under the main term, Diabetes.
In this case the provider documents “poorly controlled diabetes mellitus with diabetic foot ulcer and acute osteomyelitis.” You state that the nephropathy, chronic kidney disease and osteomyelitis are not explicitly linked to diabetes mellitus by the provider; however I interpret this provider linking osteomyelitis to the DM when he states “discharged … with a diagnosis of poorly controlled diabetes mellitus with diabetic foot ulcer and acute osteomyelitis.” My understanding is that a query would need to be generated to the provider in order to establish a link if it is not clear; I see how E1169, E1165, and M86172 were obtained; though it seems as though M86172 would be coded with or without a link to DM, but I do not understand your explanation regarding such. Please clarify. Thank you.
Osteomyelitis is included as a subterm under the main term Diabetes with effective October 1, 2016. Please see Coding Clinic, 4th quarter, 2016, pp. 141-142 for further information on this topic. A query to the physician to establish a link between diabetes mellitus and osteomyelitis is not needed.
From the example, it looks like the word “with” does not have to be documented to use the subterm ‘with’ in the index? In other words, I didn’t see “Diabetes with CKD” and the answer includes E11.21 and E11.22.
The word ‘with’ does not need to be documented in the diagnosis statement by the provider. The guideline supports this – specifically the following the sentences: “The classification presumes a causal relationship between the two conditions linked by these terms in the Alphabetic Index or Tabular List. These conditions should be coded as related even in the absence of provider documentation explicitly linking them . . . “