Clinical documentation improvement will be an important part of your ICD-10 transition. That means physicians and staff will need to be more specific in describing diagnoses and procedures.

Laura Legg has some advice on how to document clinical encounters for ICD-10 codes. Specifically, she covers diabetes, pathological fractures and pregnancy. Generally, laterality often will be needed.

Here are a couple examples of how specific ICD-10-CM codes will get:

• Coding for Ovarian Cancer: ICD-10-CM coding focuses on specific sections of the organ. (For The Record)

• ICD-10-CM coding for insulin pump malfunction: ICD-10-CM codes that focus on malfunctions that result in underdosing and overdosing of insulin. (ICD-10 Trainer)

This is a weekly feature that I use to highlight practical tips on how to use and understand ICD-10-CM/PCS codes. Please let me know of any other sources that I can include.