If you are new to medical coding, this page introduces to you some basic terms and
knowledge about medical coding.
Medical Coding
Medical coding is the process of classifying patients into different types, i.e., to
categorize patients into different classes based on the conditions or services patients
received from health care providers. Medical coding is a necessary step for billing and
reimbursement for health care providers.
Diagnosis Coding
Diagnosis coding is to classify patients into different categories based on their
diseases or conditions.
Procedure Coding
Procedure coding is to classify the services such as surgery, diagnostic procedures
etc into different categories.
The following is a list of common acronyms used in medical coding. It is necessary to understand
these acronyms in order to use this website to assist you in medical coding.
- ICD
- International Classification of Disease
- Diagnosis Coding
- Inpatient and OutPatient
- ICD-9-CM
- International Classification of Disease, 9th edition, Clinical Modification
- Diagnosis and Procedure Coding
- Inpatient and OutPatient
- Example: 786.50, Chest pain, unspecified
- In this website only, ICD-9-PCS is used to refer to the procedure part of ICD-9-CM
- In this website only, ICD-9-CM sometimes refers to the diagnosis part of ICD-9-CM
- ICD-10
- International Classification of Disease, 10th edition
- Diagnosis Coding
- WHO (World Health Organization) version of ICD
- Total number of ICD-10 codes: around 14,400
- Example: E10.2, Type 1 diabetes mellitus with kidney complications
- ICD-10-CM
- International Classification of Disease, 10th edition, Clinical Modification
- Diagnosis Coding
- Inpatient and Outpatient
- Based on WHO version of ICD-10
- Adaptation of WHO ICD-10 to United States
- Total number of ICD-10-CM codes: 91,737
- Billable ICD-10-CM codes: 69,823
- Example: A98.4, Ebola virus disease
- ICD-10-PCS
- International Classification of Disease, 10th edition, Procedure Coding System
- Procedure Coding
- Inpatient
- Completely independent of WHO ICD-10
- Total number of ICD-10-PCS codes: 71,924
- Example: 10E0XZZ, Delivery of Products of Conception, External Approach
- CPT
- Current Procedure Terminology
- Procedure Coding
- Outpatient
- Total number of CPT codes: 9,030
- Example: 71010, RADIOLOGIC EXAMINATION, CHEST; SINGLE VIEW, FRONTAL
- HCPCS
- Health Care Common Procedure Coding System
- Procedure Coding
- Outpatient
- HCPCS I
- Health Care Common Procedure Coding System, Level I
- Alias for CPT
- HCPCS II
- Health Care Common Procedure Coding System, Level II
- Outpatient
- Total number of HCPCS II codes: 5,843
- Example: G0008, Administration of influenza virus vaccine
- DRG
- Diagnosis Related Group
- Inpatient
- Total number of DRG codes: 752
- Example: 338, APPENDECTOMY WITH COMPLICATED PRINCIPAL DIAGNOSIS WITH MCC