“The subterm “with” in the Index should be interpreted as a link between diabetes and any of those conditions indented under the word “with.” The physician documentation does not need to provide a link between the diagnoses of diabetes and chronic kidney disease to accurately assign code E11.22, Type 2 diabetes mellitus with diabetic chronic kidney disease. This link can be assumed since the chronic kidney disease is listed under the subterm “with.” These conditions should be coded as related, even in the absence of provider documentation explicitly linking them, unless the documentation clearly states the conditions are unrelated and due to some other underlying cause besides diabetes. For conditions not specifically linked by these relational terms in the classification, provider documentation must link the conditions in order to code them as related. .”
