How to Find V Codes in ICD-9

Why are you seeing the doctor? A V code may describe the answer. ICD-9-CM is the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification. Most diagnoses are expressed using numeric codes. However, factors influencing health status, such as contact with communicable diseases, or interaction with health services are coded with V codes. Medical coders translate the words used by physicians and other health care providers to describe a patient's condition into these numeric and alpha-numeric codes to transmit claims to insurance companies.

Things You'll Need

• ICD-9-CM book

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Instructions

• 1

  Obtain an ICD-9-CM book from one of numerous companies who publish these books each year, such as the American Medical Association or Medical Arts Press, or search the Internet for online versions of the books. Some of these websites are free; others charge a fee. Familiarize yourself with the layout of the book, and read the Coding Guidelines section at the front. Refer repeatedly to both the alphabetical and numeric indexes as you study.

• 2

  Locate the V codes chapter near the end of the ICD-9-CM book, immediately following the numeric diagnosis codes. Notice the chapter is divided into fifteen categories; the Coding Guidelines section in your ICD-9 book discusses these categories in detail. Read carefully the diagnoses written by the health care provider for whom you are coding to determine if any of them fall into one of the V code categories.

• 3

  Use V codes as the primary or first diagnosis on claims only on rare occasions, such as when a patient is seen for a routine physical. Enter a V code as a secondary (not first) diagnosis on the claim if appropriate. Code vaccinations, for example, with a V code. Also code a history of a disease, such as a disease the patient no longer has but may affect his or her current health status, with a V code.

• 4

  Update your diagnosis list, including V codes, every year as new codes are constantly being added, some codes are changed, and other are deleted. Find these code changes online at a website such as Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, instead of buying a new ICD-9-CM book every year, which is expensive. You will find your claims denied if you use out-of-date diagnosis codes.