With changes coming to coding terminology, it’s important to evaluate your program’s med term coverage now.
When is a “resection” really an “excision?”
When it’s coded in ICD-10-PCS. As instructor and author Alice Noblin explains, “Certain common surgical procedures are defined differently in [ICD-10-]PCS than they are in Volume 3 of ICD-9[-CM].”
For example, transurethral resection of the prostate (the process of treating benign prostatic hyperplasia via the removal of tissue from the prostate) will now be coded as transurethral excision of the prostate. “With I-10, if you code it as a transurethral resection, you are coding removal of the prostate. So it’s going to be an adjustment for existing coders, too.”
Noblin, Health Information Management Program Director at the University of Central Florida, recently participated in an ICD-10 training seminar sponsored by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), and noted the potential challenges presented by this new terminology. “Coders and coding students need to know about these changes. Relying on existing terminology will result in miscoding.”
How can you prepare?
As the leader in coding education resources, Elsevier is developing training solutions to help instructors adapt their programs to reflect the changes in terminology for PCS coding. Begin your preparation now by ensuring that your program’s medical terminology coverage is up to date.
