ICD-9 coding manuals can be tedious, but the correct code can also mean the difference between reimbursement and a returned claim.
Family Practice Management is offering help: a quick-reference list of diagnoses common in family practice and their codes from the International Classification of Diseases, vol. 9.
The FPM ICD-9 code list, created by and for family physicians, is available as a pull-out card in the October FPM. You also may call the AAFP Order Department, (800) 944-0000, and ask for item #R512. The price for two copies is $5 for members, plus a $4 shipping and handling fee. For quantity discounts, ask for item #R513--10 copies for $20, plus a $4 shipping and handling fee.
The list can be downloaded by computer from the FPM area of the AAFP Web site at http://www.aafp.org/fpm/index.html.
Your Academy membership also can facilitate your purchase of an entire coding manual. Medicode--a vendor that publishes manuals with codes from Physicians' Current Procedural Terminology, ICD-9, and Health Care Financing Administration Common Procedural Coding System--offers AAFP members a discount on the 1997 editions.
Medicode also sells a variety of books to assist physicians in the area of reimbursement. Call Medicode at (800) 765-6091 for more information. Don't forget to mention you are an AAFP member.
FP Report, October 1996
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