F32 New ICD9 Codes

To quote the official CMS site (http://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/ICD9ProviderDiagnosticCodes/addendum.html),

There are no new ICD-9-CM code updates effective October 1, 2014.

F31 New ICD9 Codes

Probably also because of the impending switch from ICD9 to ICD10, there
was little change in the ICD9 codes: no changes to diagnosis codes
and only four new procedure codes:

00.96   COAG FACTOR TRANSFUSION
14.81   IMP EPIRETINAL PROSTH
14.82   REM EPIRETINAL PROSTH
14.83   REV/REPL EPIRETINAL PROS

For details, visit the CMS site:

https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/ICD9ProviderDiagnosticCodes/

ICD Codes & MS-Excel (Leading Zeroes)

Each year CMS publishes a data set to help users validate their DRG assignments for that year's DRG version.

We use the official CMS test data set to confirm that our DRG assignments are correct. The data set arrives as a text file which we use in a variety of ways:

1. we use the text file as-is to validate DRGFilt
2. we extract & pretty-print random cases to validate our interactive products
1. CGI-DRG under Windows
2. CGI-DRG under Linux
3. Access-DRG under Windows
4. C-callable DLL under Windows
5. Linux DLL under Linux
6. PHP shared object under Linux
7. Perl shared object under Linux
8. C shared object under Linux
3. we reformat the text file as a CSV in order to validate Excel-DRG

(Many of these exercises are being done twice as we validate our ICD10-based code base.)

It is item 3 that gave us fits this for a long-standing reason: MS-Excel's CSV import insists on stripping leading zeroes for values it imports if those values are all-numeric. This wreaks havoc on ICD9 or ICD10 codes, either of which can start with one or more zeroes and be all digits for the rest of the code.

There are tricks for formatting the code so that it appears to have its leading zeroes, but that does not help, because the actual data remains the stripped version, which is just plain wrong.

We have painfully rediscovered the only way we know of to fix this (although we welcome suggestions of better ways to do this)

1. give your CSV the ".txt" extension, eg "testdb.txt" and NOT "testdb.csv"
2. use the Excel Data->Import->text file function
3. choose your text file from the list of available files
4. in the import dialogue, specify that the delimiter is comma
5. at step three, highlight any ICD9 or ICD10 columns and specify that the format is "Text"
6. import and confirm

TECHNIQUES WHICH DO NOT WORK

If you are trying to use the native Excel Import function on a file with the CSV extension, eg "testdb.csv", we tried the following ideas without success. Most of these ideas were found on the Internet, free and worth every penny.

• Encasing the data in double-quotes, eg "0016071"
• Using a single-quote at the start of the code, eg '0016071
• Making the value into a formula, eg ="0016071"
• Using a leading blank and double-quotes, eg " 0016071"

New in V30

The DRG definitions were finalized early this year, allowing us to ship products on September 28, 2012 instead of our usual target of the first week in October.

This is a quiet year for DRG version change. The only real DRG change we have to report is the addtion of two new HACs (see glossary), 13 and 14.

Probably also because of the impending switch from ICD9 to ICD10, there are no new or revised or deleted ICD-9-CM diagnosis codes for V30. There are also no revised or deleted ICD-9-CM procedure codes for V30 and only one new procedure code:

00.95    Injection or infusion of glucarpidase

For details, visit the CMS site:

https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/ICD9ProviderDiagnosticCodes/

Conversion from ICD9 codes for diagnoses and procedures to ICD10 codes is still coming, but it isn't here yet. We will continue to produce ICD10 versions of our products as an aid to cutting over.

Calling mhicd()

There is some confusion, partly caused by bad documentation on our part, about calling mhicd(), the function which gives you the short description of the specified ICD9cm code.


ORIGINAL EMAIL

I get the following error message when I try to compile the examples in DRGMAN.pdf.
        'mhicd' : function does not take 4 arguments...
Can it be that the version differs?


ANSWER


You are right, the example is wrong, it is missing the final argument. We will fix that as soon as we can.

The mhicd() function takes 5 arguments:

(1) which kind of code: D=diagnosis, P or S=procedure
(2) the file name to use as the ICD9 look up table
(3) the ICD9 code to be looked up
(4) the buffer into which to put the name
(5) the length of the buffer
 
So the examples should look like this:


Visual BASIC

Private Sub dx_Change(index As Integer)
    Dim retval As String * 24
   
    Call mhicd("d", _
        Command & "/icd9.tab", Me.dx(index).Text, retval, 23)
    Me.ddesc(index).Caption = retval
End Sub


C VERSION


    if ((i=mhicd("d","icd9.tab","56409",retval,23))) {
        printf("Error from mhicd(): %d\n",i);
    } else {
        printf("%s\n",retval);
    }

Expected F29 Release: still 10/12/11

Development has turned over the ICD9 F29 DAE to us for validation, a process we expect to complete in time for a release tomorrow.

The ICD10-prototype-for-F28, which we call X28, will be out of development soon.

Version 29 of ICD10 won't be released until January, 2012, so development won't be done with X29 until the end of January, 2012, at the earliest.

How Many DX Codes?

QUESTION

Your documentation states that the groupers currently only utilize up to nine diagnosis codes. Are you planning on increasing that number to 25 in conjunction with the recent changes CMS has implemented?

ANSWER

Our ICD9-based DRG Assignment Engine supports up to 15 diagnosis codes. Our ICD10 prototype currently supports 30 diagnosis codes, but we only commit to supporting the expected 25.

ICD9 Look Up

QUESTION

Is there functionality to do a text search of the ICD-9 that would return the ICD-9 number?  Is there some sort of documentation of all the functions and sub procedures that come with the Drg dll and Icd-9 dll?

ANSWER

There is no text search support in our ICD9 handling; it is tool for labeling a given ICD9, not for choosing an ICD9.

There is scads of documentation on the procedures and how to call them. I have attached our manual here, though you should have received a copy with your order.