Checkmark & Numerical Icons Indicate Level Of Specificity

... checkmark and numerical icons let you know if you're looking at a full or truncated code

Before assigning an ICD-10 code, be sure it has a  icon indicating that the code is at the greatest level of specificity. If the code detail page shows a numerical icon, you need to dig deeper and include additional characters before assigning a diagnosis for that condition.

Perhaps your patient misunderstood the doctor’s & pharmacist’s instructions and had been taking two daily doses of their blood pressure meds instead of the one indicated on the bottle. Your query in the Table of Drugs & Chemicals for antihypertensive returns one result, and after you clicked the  to open the table, you see the following:

Listed below each code is a “7” icon that lets you know these codes require an additional character. For our case of unintentional poisoning, we click T46.5X1 to see that code’s detail page. On the descriptor bar, note the same “7” icon is visible in the lower left. Click View Related Codes on the right side of the descriptor bar to see which seven-character children are available, in this case for initial encounter (T46.5X1A), subsequent encounter (T46.5X1D) and sequela (T46.5X1S).

When we select the appropriate 7th character – say, T46.5X1D – the  icon below the code and descriptor for that full (not truncated) code reflects that we are now to the greatest specificity possible, meaning that it is a “valid” code for reporting.