continued on page 34
In 2003, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act identified
the International Classification
of Diseases, Ninth Revision,
Clinical Modification (ICD-
9-CM) as the standard code
set for reporting medical and
surgical diagnoses and inpatient
procedures. ICD is a diagnostic
tool used for epidemiology,
health management, and
clinical purposes.* Currently,
ICD-9-CM includes both
diagnosis and procedural codes.
ICD- 9 will be transitioning to
the ICD 10th Revision (ICD- 10),
October 1. ICD- 10 is expected
to be an expanded code set,
including additional information
for ambulatory and managed
care and injuries. It is expected
to combine diagnosis and
symptom codes to better define
certain conditions, increase
specificity through greater
code length, and provide the
ability to specify laterality.†
ICD- 10 will consist of
two parts: ICD-10-Clinical
Modification (CM) and ICD-10-
Procedure Coding System (PCS).
Surgeons and other health care
professionals will use ICD-10-
CM to report medical diagnoses.
Hospitals will use ICD-10-PCS
to report inpatient procedures.
For more information on the
differences between ICD-10-
CM and ICD-10-PCS, view
the American College of
Surgeons (ACS) ICD factsheet
at www.facs.org/advocacy/
practmanagement/icd10/factsheet.
To assist surgeons with the
transition to ICD- 10, the ACS
has developed an ICD-9-CM
to ICD-10-CM crosswalk of
the most frequently reported
general surgery diagnosis codes.
It can be used as tool to help
determine what a particular
ICD- 9 code will be translated to
in ICD- 10. It may also be used as
a resource to aid in the billing
process. Accurate coding is the
responsibility of the provider.
ACS ICD- 9 to ICD- 10 crosswalk
The ACS analyzed the Current
Procedural Terminology (CPT)‡
codes that general surgeons
report most commonly and
compared them with the most
frequently reported ICD-
9 codes. The crosswalk was
developed using the three ICD-
9 family codes with the highest
frequency of being reported
as a diagnosis within the top
CPT codes. The specified ICD-
9 codes within these families
were then crosswalked with
the appropriate ICD- 10 code(s).
The ICD- 9 codes were mapped
out to the appropriate ICD- 10
| 31
ACS develops ICD- 9 to ICD- 10
crosswalk to assist in billing
by Sana Gokak, MPH
* World Health Organization. International
Classification of Diseases. Available
at: www.who.int/classifications/icd/
en/. Accessed December 8, 2014.
†American Medical Association. What
you need to know about the upcoming
transition to ICD- 10. Available at: www.
azmed.org/ckfinder/userfiles/files/icd-10-
transition.pdf. Accessed December 8, 2014.
‡All specific references to CPT codes and
descriptions are © 2013 American Medical
Association. All rights reserved. CPT and
CodeManager are registered trademarks
of the American Medical Association.
