You Be the Coder: Dig Down to the Reason for Chronic Pain
Question: What is the difference between acute and chronic pain, from a coding perspective?
Rhode Island Subscriber
Answer: Acute pain typically lasts less than three to six months and can be directly related to tissue damage or associated with a recent accident, injury or surgery. Normally, acute pain disappears when the underlying cause of the pain has been treated or has healed.
ICD-10 codes: Codes that you’ll use for acute pain diagnoses include:
G89.0, Central pain syndrome
G89.11, Acute pain due to trauma
G89.12, Acute post-thoracotomy pain
G89.18, Other acute postprocedural pain
R52, Acute...
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