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Hypertension is one diagnosis that will have fewer code

choices in ICD-10 and you will not have to specify
whether its malignant, benign or unspecified!
Hypertension can be defined as the increase of pressure in the
arteries, which can differ in the degree of severity, based on
the level of the blood pressure reading. Essentially, there are
two types of hypertension primary or essential hypertension
and secondary hypertension. While the primary or essential
hypertension develops gradually over many years, secondary
hypertension seems to appear suddenly. Most hypertension is
considered primary.

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Sedwick Drive, Durham, NC 27713

People with high blood pressure, diabetes - those

are conditions brought about by life style. If you
change the life style, those conditions will leave.
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ICD-10 Hypertension
Although many diagnoses will expand to multiple options in ICD-10,
hypertension is one diagnosis that will have fewer choices in the new
system. Currently, while coding for primary hypertension in ICD-9, you need
to figure out whether the hypertension is malignant, benign or unspecified.
The category code 401.x is used and the fourth digit for 401.x code shows
whether the hypertension is malignant, benign or unspecified.
401.0 (malignant);
401.1 (benign); or
401.9 (unspecified).
In ICD-10, there will be one primary hypertension code I10 (Essential
[primary] hypertension) and you will not be required to specify whether
its malignant, benign or unspecified!

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Sedwick Drive, Durham, NC 27713

Hypertension coding can also be

organized by organ involvement
This is to say that when hypertension leads to heart disease,
chronic kidney disease, or both heart and chronic kidney disease,
there are separate code categories in both ICD-9 and ICD-10. For
instance, ICD-9 has one code for hypertensive heart disease
402.xx/I11 and ICD-10 has two codes: I11.0 (Hypertensive heart
disease with heart failure) and I11.9 (Hypertensive heart disease
without heart failure) after the switchover.
Again, when you choose a diagnosis code for a patient who has
been diagnosed with both chronic kidney disease and
hypertensive heart disease in ICD-9, youll use codes from the
404.xx category. In ICD-10, youll have to choose from four I13
codes.

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Watch for this confusion

Even though coding for hypertension would be fairly straightforward in ICD10, you need to be careful here. In ICD-9 code, the 0 in the fifth digit
means that the patient doesnt have heart failure whereas in ICD-10 code,
the 0 on the end of the code means that patient has suffered from heart
failure.
Additionally, youll need to focus on documentation because cause and
documentation go hand in hand. For instance, in order to list a 402.xx or I11
code, you need to have documentation to support a causal relationship
between the patients hypertension and his heart disease. If you do not have
documentation to show that the two conditions are linked, you need to
report them separately. The key to correct hypertension coding is
documentation and you need to ask your physicians to explicitly document
what type of hypertension they are treating.

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Sedwick Drive, Durham, NC 27713

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The Coding Institute LLC, 2222

Sedwick Drive, Durham, NC 27713