Prepare Your Practice for the New ICD-10 2022 Guidelines January 7, 2022

As fall approaches, not only do the leaves change but healthcare practices should also be prepared for ICD-10 changes, which take effect every October 1. The Big Question: Is Your Practice Already Prepared for the New ICD-10 2022 Guidelines? Worry no more! With this article, you can adhere to the New ICD-10 Coding Guidelines FY 2022.

So, what are ICD-10 Guidelines? 

In every healthcare setting, ICD-10-CM guidelines are used to classify diagnoses, morbidities, and reasons for patient visits. Healthcare providers and coders must use these guidelines and reporting requirements as companion documents to the official version of the ICD-10-CM.  ICD-10-CM and the ICD-10 code set under the new guidelines, including new, revised, and retired codes, are updated.  Also, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) implement the newly updated International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM), and the ICD-10 code set. A total of 72,748 codes are available this year including 159 new codes, 32 deleted codes, and 20 revised codes. 

New Codes for COVID-19 Infection

New codes are available for FY 2022 to report conditions secondary to COVID-19 infection (sequelae):

• J12.82: Pneumonia due to Coronavirus disease 2019 (MCC)
• M35.81: Multisystem inflammatory syndrome (CC)
• M35.89: Other specified system involvement of connective tissue (CC)
• Z11.52: Encounter for screening for COVID-19
• Z20.822: Contact with and (suspected) exposure to COVID-19
• Z86.16: Personal history of COVID-19

Below is the latest code in a series of six codes added on January 1, 2021:

• U09.9: Post COVID-19 condition, unspecified

New codes for conditions affecting the nervous system

The ICD-10 now includes 10 new codes in this category, with many of them classified as MCC or CC codes (please see above). Some of these new codes include:

• G04.82: Acute flaccid myelitis (MCC)
• G44.86: Cervicogenic headache
• G92.00: Immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome, grade unspecified
• G92.01: Immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome, grade 1
• G92.02: Immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome, grade 2
• G92.03: Immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome, grade 3 (CC)
• G92.04: Immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome, grade 4 (CC)
• G92.05: Immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome, grade 5 (CC)
• G92.8: Other toxic encephalopathy (MCC)
• G92.9: Unspecified toxic encephalopathy (MCC)

ICD-10 2022: New and Deleted Codes

ICD-10-CM coding guideline changes for 2022 include a number of corrections to spelling errors, as well as significant changes to diseases and conditions. Code additions and deletions are also major areas of change. The table below is a high-level breakdown of additions and deletions to the ICD-10-CM coding guidelines for 2022.

The deleted codes:

Implementing Diagnosis Code Changes

To ensure your claims are paid, healthcare practices should integrate the 2022 ICD-10-CM coding guideline changes into their system.

Billing/medical records software systems are a huge risk for your practice (if you use them). It can be disastrous if you blindly rely on your software system to implement ICD-10-CM updates in a timely manner. If there is a problem with your system, the software company is not responsible. The responsibility lies with you. Thus, you should compare the current year’s diagnosis code changes with those added to your software system to identify errors as soon as possible.

Lastly, you must teach your staff and providers about the key changes to the 2022 ICD-10-CM coding guidelines – based on your specialty. By doing so, you will be improving efficiency and accuracy when choosing diagnosis codes – either electronically or on paper.

Key Takeaway

To enhance the quality of reported data, the continuity of care, and patient outcomes, we endeavor to improve ICD-10 codes and clinical documentation throughout the process.

Tap Into Our Expertise

At 5 Star Billing Billing Services Inc, we offer the highest level of performance for high-quality medical billing and coding. Save your money by outsourcing to a professional billing service.

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