If you are a particularly observant medical coder, you’ve probably noticed that many codes identified as deleted were actually promoted to new roles. Nearly 50 codes were revamped to become parent codes of more specific codes,and it’s causing some confusion because some electronic coding systems mark them as deleted AND new.
Same Codes Marked as Deleted/New
Take C43.11 Malignant melanoma of right upper eyelid, including canthus, for example. Marked “no change” in the 2019 ICD-10-CM Addendum by CMS, the code received two new codes indented underneath for added specificity.
C43.111 Malignant melanoma of right upper eyelid, including canthus
C43.112 Malignant melanoma of right lower eyelid, including canthus
The next code, C43.12 Malignant melanoma of left upper eyelid, including canthus also received new codes. However, depending on the your encoder, it will show the code as both deleted and new.
Other codes are receiving this treatment, and it’s a good idea to keep your wits about you as you identify them in reports. Be sure to report the inconsistency to your coworkers and supervisors, along with your look-up program, encoder, and EMR provider.
| Code | Long Description |
| C43.11 | Malignant melanoma of right eyelid, including canthus |
| C43.12 | Malignant melanoma of left eyelid, including canthus |
| C4A.11 | Merkel cell carcinoma of right eyelid, including canthus |
| C4A.12 | Merkel cell carcinoma of left eyelid, including canthus |
| C44.102 | Unspecified malignant neoplasm of skin of right eyelid, including canthus |
| C44.109 | Unspecified malignant neoplasm of skin of left eyelid, including canthus |
| C44.112 | Basal cell carcinoma of skin of right eyelid, including canthus |
| C44.119 | Basal cell carcinoma of skin of left eyelid, including canthus |
| C44.122 | Squamous cell carcinoma of skin of right eyelid, including canthus |
| C44.129 | Squamous cell carcinoma of skin of left eyelid, including canthus |
| C44.192 | Other specified malignant neoplasm of skin of right eyelid, including canthus |
| C44.199 | Other specified malignant neoplasm of skin of left eyelid, including canthus |
| D03.11 | Melanoma in situ of right eyelid, including canthus |
| D03.12 | Melanoma in situ of left eyelid, including canthus |
| D04.11 | Carcinoma in situ of skin of right eyelid, including canthus |
| D04.12 | Carcinoma in situ of skin of left eyelid, including canthus |
| D22.11 | Melanocytic nevi of right eyelid, including canthus |
| D22.12 | Melanocytic nevi of left eyelid, including canthus |
| D23.11 | Other benign neoplasm of skin of right eyelid, including canthus |
| D23.12 | Other benign neoplasm of skin of left eyelid, including canthus |
| E72.8 | Other specified disorders of amino-acid metabolism |
| E78.4 | Other hyperlipidemia |
| F53 | Mental and behavioral disorders associated with the puerperium, not elsewhere classified |
| G51.3 | Clonic hemifacial spasm |
| G71.0 | Muscular dystrophy |
| H57.8 | Other specified disorders of eye and adnexa |
| I63.8 | Other cerebral infarction |
| K35.2 | Acute appendicitis with generalized peritonitis |
| K35.3 | Acute appendicitis with localized peritonitis |
| K35.89 | Other acute appendicitis |
| K61.3 | Ischiorectal abscess |
| K83.0 | Cholangitis |
| M79.1 | Myalgia |
| N35.8 | Other urethral stricture |
| N35.9 | Urethral stricture, unspecified |
| O86.0 | Infection of obstetric surgical wound |
| P02.7 | Newborn affected by chorioamnionitis |
| P04.1 | Newborn affected by other maternal medication |
| P04.8 | Newborn affected by other maternal noxious substances |
| P74.2 | Disturbances of sodium balance of newborn |
| P74.3 | Disturbances of potassium balance of newborn |
| P74.4 | Other transitory electrolyte disturbances of newborn |
| Q51.2 | Other doubling of uterus |
| Q93.5 | Other deletions of part of a chromosome |
| R82.99 | Other abnormal findings in urine |
| R93.8 | Abnormal findings on diagnostic imaging of other specified body structures |
| Z04.8 | Encounter for examination and observation for other specified reasons |
| Z13.4 | Encounter for screening for certain developmental disorders in childhood |