ICD Help
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The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is a
coding system maintained by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the
National Center for Health Statistics and is used to classify causes of death
on death certificates and diagnoses, injury causes, and medical
procedures for hospital and emergency department visits. These codes are
updated every decade or so to account for advances in medical
technology. Currently, the U.S. is using the 10th revision of the ICD (ICD-10).
ICD codes are used on the death certificate primarily for surveillance
purposes. There is a strong emphasis in the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) protocols
on correct classification of underlying cause of death and related
causes of death on the death certificate, and the process is
well-defined and regularly audited. The validity is excellent to the
extent that the persons completing the death certificate record the
causes of death accurately and legibly. (Sometimes death certificates
are completed by the Office of the Medical Examiner, but they are also
completed by physicians, funeral directors, and law enforcement.)
ICD codes that are used in the hospital discharge query system are the codes that were recorded in the Uniform Bill-Patient Summaries (UB), a standard electronic billing form used across the country. The primary purpose of supplying codes to this form is to bill for hospital services. In general, it is believed that the ICD codes on the UB do an adequate job of accurately recording the reason (diagnosis) for each hospital visit.
ICD codes that are used in the hospital discharge query system are the codes that were recorded in the Uniform Bill-Patient Summaries (UB), a standard electronic billing form used across the country. The primary purpose of supplying codes to this form is to bill for hospital services. In general, it is believed that the ICD codes on the UB do an adequate job of accurately recording the reason (diagnosis) for each hospital visit.
See
A Guide to State Implementation of ICD-10 for Mortality Part II: Applying
Comparability Ratios. (December 2000) National Center for Health
Statistics, pp. 6-7.
ICD-10 and ICD-10-CM
ICD-9-CM
*ICD-10-CM was implemented nationwide on October 1, 2015. New Jersey hospital records for October 1, 2015 through December 31, 2015 were back-coded to ICD-9-CM so the entire data year would be coded the same way.
- ICD-10 is used for Mortality data (1999-present)
- ICD-10 online code look-up
- ICD-10 information
- ICD-10-CM is used for Hospitalization data (2016-present)*
- ICD-10-CM diagnosis and procedure codes and transition information
- ICD-10-CM information
ICD-9-CM
- ICD-9-CM was used for Hospitalization data (2008-2015)*
- ICD-9-CM diagnosis and procedure codes
- ICD-9-CM online code look-up
- ICD-9-CM information
*ICD-10-CM was implemented nationwide on October 1, 2015. New Jersey hospital records for October 1, 2015 through December 31, 2015 were back-coded to ICD-9-CM so the entire data year would be coded the same way.
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