Right knee pain ICD 10

Right knee pain ICD 10 code, ICD 10 code for right knee pain

ICD right knee pain code or M25.561 is used daily by physical therapists for billing services and is one of thousands of codes included in the International Classification of Disease, 10th Revision (ICD-10), a set of diagnosis, symptom, and procedure codes. Codes, like right knee pain ICD 10, identify a medical diagnosis and help insurance companies understand why the care you provide is medically necessary and therefore, reimbursable. To help you learn more about selecting and reporting ICD-10 codes, this article will use the right knee pain ICD 10 code, M25.561, as an example. 

If you, like many therapists, have some experience searching for and selecting ICD-10 codes but don’t have a good understanding of the who, what, when and why these codes are used, read on for an ICD-10 code primer. Following this we will discuss the right knee pain ICD 10 code in more detail.  



An introduction to low back pain ICD 10 codes

Who:

All HIPAA-covered entities are required to submit ICD-10 codes if seeking reimbursement for services from an insurance company. This includes physical therapists.

What:

The International Classification of Disease, 10th Revision (ICD-10) is a set of diagnosis, symptom, and procedure codes that physical therapists use daily in their practice. In 2015 physical therapists and all other HIPAA-covered healthcare providers transitioned from the ICD-9 to the current version, ICD-10. ICD-10 codes are alphanumeric codes. They begin with a letter and are always between three and seven characters with a decimal point placed after the third character. The more characters it has, the more specific it is.


Each code follows the following structure:

Characters 1-3 indicate the category of the diagnosis;

Characters 4-6 indicate etiology, anatomic site, severity or other clinical detail;

Character 7 is an extension value, for example:

A: initial encounter (anything related to care of the initial injury);

D: subsequent encounter (anything related to the phase of routine care of the injury while the patient recovers–this usually refers to rehabilitation);

S: sequela (other conditions that may result from the presence of the primary condition).

Note, for fracture care, there are several more extensions (example: P, G, K, which signify malunion, delayed healing, or nonunion for a subsequent encounter).

When:

ICD-10 codes must be submitted with relevant documentation whenever reimbursement is sought for covered services either by the healthcare entity itself or by a patient.

Why:

While it may seem like an extra step in an already detailed process of documentation and billing, ICD-10 codes are required for a specific reason. Not only do they identify a medical diagnosis, but perhaps more importantly, they help insurance companies understand why the care you are providing is medically necessary and therefore, reimbursable.

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Knee pain is a common complaint amongst pediatric and adult patients. Knee pain can be the result of a direct injury, an ongoing disease process or it can be a secondary condition caused by an issue elsewhere in the body. Osteoarthritis, for example, one of the most common causes of knee pain, was found in 654 million adults over 40 years old according to a global study published in 2020. Even amongst a cohort of 18-39 year olds at a university, researchers in 2019 found that knee pain was very common, especially amongst those with higher levels of activity. 

Patients may use different descriptors to characterize their knee pain such as “discomfort,” “aching”, “sharp” and “dull”. Pain may be present only with certain activities, positions or movements or it may persist at rest. These symptoms and their impact on functional activities can range from mild to severe.

Knee pain as a symptom can have a number of underlying causes such as the ones outlined below:
  • Contusion
  • ACL/MCL/PCL/LCL sprain or tear
  • Patellofemoral syndrome
  • Patellar dislocation
  • Patellar chondromalacia
  • Patellar tendinitis 
  • IT band syndrome
  • Meniscus injury
  • Fracture
  • Bursitis
  • Osteoarthritis
  • Rheumatoid arthritis
  • Gout 

Right knee pain ICD 10: M25.561

This code for pain in the right knee should be utilized whenever the aim of your interventions is to address the knee pain. You may use this as the primary or as a secondary code depending on whether there are other impairments that are of a higher priority. 

Is it billable?

Yes, M25.561 (the right knee pain ICD 10 code) is considered specific enough to be utilized to indicate a diagnosis for billing/reimbursement purposes. The parent code M25.5 (pain in joint) is considered too nonspecific for billing which is why it is important to look for codes with more characters that can provide more detail.

When is an alternative code more appropriate?

In this case, there are no other codes that specifically describe pain or discomfort in the right knee joint. 

With this in mind, however, there may be cases where an additional diagnosis code would be utilized alongside the right knee pain ICD 10 code, M25.561 to describe a condition or injury of the knee that has led to this pain. 

Due to the numerous potential causes of knee pain, this list is nowhere near exhaustive. Utilizing a reputable resource like ICD 10 Data to search for the condition you are looking for can help you identify pertinent codes.

Some examples of relevant codes in this case are as follows:

M17.11 Unilateral primary osteoarthritis, right knee

M10.061 Idiopathic gout, right knee

S83.251D Bucket-handle tear of lateral meniscus, current injury, right knee subsequent encounter

S80.01XA Contusion of right knee, initial encounter



Additional code considerations for right knee pain ICD 10

As you can see, physical therapists have a host of choices for right knee pain ICD-10 codes if you choose to include the cause of knee pain in your list of diagnosis codes. When selecting codes, here are some additional considerations to help with successful reimbursement: 

Place of occurrence codes (Y92): place of occurrence codes may be reported during the initial evaluation to increase specificity of the primary diagnosis.

Example: right knee pain in middle schooler who fell at school

Y92.212 Middle school as the place of occurrence of the external cause

External cause codes (V00-Y99) specify an external cause resulting in the episode of right knee pain and may be used during the initial evaluation to increase specificity of the primary diagnosis

Example 1: right knee pain in middle schooler who fell at school

W01  Fall on same level from slipping, tripping and stumbling

Stay up to date

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services publish an updated list of codes each year to go into effect October 1 and remain in effect until September 30 of the following year. Sites like ICD10 Data can also be helpful in identifying code changes once they update their list as announced on their homepage



Resources

In addition, tools like TheraPlatform can make looking up and using codes like the right knee pain ICD 10 code easy when it comes to billing. TheraPlatform, an all-in-one EHR, practice management and teletherapy tool was built for therapists to help them save time on admin tasks. Sign-up for their 30-day free trial to find out how you can simplify private practice operations like scheduling, documentation and finances.

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