The ever-present focus on capturing patients’ healthcare journeys is mirrored in the increased specificity provided by this year’s ICD-10-CM 2023 update, which took effect on Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022.

While this fiscal year will see some significant ICD-10 changes – with 251 deleted codes and 1176 new billable healthcare codes¹ – some code changes may be of particular interest to rehab therapists as you strive to optimize patient documentation and reimbursement at your clinic.

Here are a few notable changes, as outlined by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)², that may affect physical therapists, occupational therapists and speech-language pathologists:

Neurological and Behavioral Conditions

For patients suffering from dementia, for example, the CMS is enacting notable ICD-10 additions, revisions and deletions to vascular dementia (F01), dementia (F02) and unspecified dementia (F03), as well as the section on other mental disorders (F06).

Within the category of Mental, Behavioral and Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 87 new codes were added. This is reflective of dementia as a continually growing health concern, and the new codes improve specificity to support clinical care and documentation.

Updates also include coding changes for documenting concussion and brain injury (S06)

Musculoskeletal Disorders

Rehab therapists, of course, will also be interested to learn about some of the coding additions and changes to conditions related to the musculoskeletal system.

ICD-10-CM codes M51.A0 to M51.A5, for example, further specify the size and location of lumbar and lumbosacral annulus fibrosus disc defects.

In addition, M62.5A expands on muscle wasting and atrophy, not elsewhere classified, to anatomical spine locations of cervical (M62.5A0), thoracic (M62.5A1), lumbosacral (M62.5A2), and unspecified level (M62.5A9).

Learn about the future of digital MSK treatments and virtual physical therapy

Social Determinants of Health

For improved health equity, the CMS is becoming increasingly interested in collecting baseline data related to social determinants of health (SDOH).

As defined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, SDOH are “conditions in the environments where people are born, live, work, play, worship and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning and quality-of-life outcomes and risks.”³

Enhancements to Z codes, which reflect factors influencing health status and access to health services (Z00-Z99), help to ascertain SDOH information.

In particular, this update expands on Z59.8, which is related to housing and economic circumstances.

Net Health Therapy Offers Seamless ICD-10 Updates

If you are currently a Net Health Therapy EHR solutions user – Net Health Therapy for Clinics, Net Health Therapy for Skilled Nursing, or Net Health Therapy for Hospitals (both Acute Care and Outpatient) – we have you covered.

All our Net Health Therapy EHR products have been updated with the latest version of ICD-10-CM 2023. These updates are effective for patient encounters and discharges from Oct. 1, 2022, through Sept. 30, 2023. Please check specific payer coverage guidelines related to the use of these ICD-10 codes for rehabilitation services.

If you have any questions about updating codes throughout your documentation, or you simply wish to learn more about our Net Health Therapy EHR products – how they automatically convert therapy services to optimal coding for each local payer – contact us today to schedule a free demo!

REFERENCES:
¹ Wolters Kluwer, “Three things to know about the 2023 ICD-10 code updates,” July 25, 2022
² Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, “2023 ICD-10-CM,” July 27, 2022
³ US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, “Social Determinants of Health“