Every year, in October you come face with new ICD-9 codes that you need to add to your diagnosis arsenal. This time too it’s no exception what with the new estasia, congenital malformation, and body mass index (BMI) codes you’ll need to know. Here are some of the proposed changes that’ll impact your cardiology practice so that you are all geared up when the fall rolls around.

Your ectasia hunt will end at 447.7x

ICD 9 2011 adds four specific codes to aortic ectasia, which could be among the most significant changes for cardiology coders. By Estasia we mean dilation or enlargement and aortic ectasia often refers to an enlargement that is milder than an aneurysm. However, ICD-9 2010 doesn’t distinguish ectasia from aneurysm, linking aortic ectasia to 441.9 and 441.5. The proposed 2011 codes are specific to aortic ectasia.

New corrected congenital malformations code

Some of the just-in codes deal with congenital malformations of the heart and circulatory system. Code V13.65 will be very helpful to our practice.

The ICD-9 proposal has expanded the body mass index (BMI) codes to show higher BMIs with five just-in codes. From October 1, you will stop using V85.4 and start using more specific V codes in its place.

The advantage: BMI has become a key health tool and those codes will also provide more data.

With just a few days to go for October 1, you will benefit a lot if you sign up for an audio conference, more so as this CMS will not allow a grace period for using the 2011 diagnosis codes.

Such a conference will provide you with all possible medical coding & billing updates pertaining to ICD 9 2011 changes not just for cardiology, but for every specialty – be it the new codes, the revised ones or the deleted ones. Some audio conferences also offer you CEUs if you sign up for one.