Welcome to the Help section of DecisionHealth's
Home Health Coding Center! The
following points should help you navigate the
Home Health Coding Center
to find the content you need quickly. If you are unable to find the answer you need,
please send a note to the
Home Health Coding Center Editors.
Search and view all Diagnosis Coding Pro articles
Click on one of the featured article links on the
Home Health Coding Center
Home page to view the latest articles. You also can access the latest Ask the
Expert and Tool of the Month from the Home page, or
by clicking on the Diagnosis Coding Pro link at the top of the
Home page. You also may search all Diagnosis Coding Pro articles by typing a word
or phrase into the Article Search field on both the Home page on the Diagnosis Coding
Pro tab.
Read or print out an entire issue of Diagnosis Coding Pro for Home Health
Click on Download Latest Issue on the
Home Health Coding Center
Home page to view all the stories and print out a PDF of the full issue. You also
can access the archive of back issues by clicking on "Browse Archive"
next to the search field on the Diagnosis Coding Pro tab, or by placing your cursor
on the Diagnosis Coding Pro link at the top of the Home page and
clicking on Archives from the drop-down menu.
'Bookmark' an article or code for later reference
Mark specific articles or codes to save time having to search for them later by
clicking on the star below the article or in the left column on the code detail
page. The star will turn gold and the article will be placed on your Bookmarks page
for later reference.
Code Search on the ICD-9 Interactive
Quickly look up information about an ICD-9-CM code using the search tool on the
ICD-9 Interactive tab.
You also can browse to an individual code, or group of codes, with the "Browse
Codes" link. This tool allows users to break down codes by chapter,
subchapter and other ranges in a tree-type format. Clicking on a range expands the
selection, allowing you to continue your search through the sections for the code
or range you are searching for.
Clicking on a range of codes or a single code will result in a Code Search for the
selected codes.
If you know the ICD-9 code you want, you can enter the code into the Tabular Codes
field on the ICD-9 Interactive tab on the Home page. To search the Disease Index
or Procedure Codes click on the corresponding button and enter the term you want
to search in the search box. Hit "Enter" to pull up the code information page, where
you'll find:
- ICD-9 code and description displayed according to CMS conventions, using
bold, italics, underlining, indentations, [brackets] and
other notations as they appear in the data set.
- Official guidelines for appropriate code assignment
- Icons on codes that identify unique characteristics of that code. For example, a
4th or 5th digit icon indicates that a 4th or 5th
digit is required for correct coding. Icons appear in the upper right hand corner
of the code page. To learn the meaning of any one of the icons click on Show Icon
Key
- Expert content in the form of Coding Tips, plain English definitions, illustrations
and scenarios of patient diagnoses commonly encountered in home health.
- Illustrations at various codes help non-clinicians better understand the human body,
and depict where in the body a particular disease or condition manifests. Illustrations
also display in the right-hand column of a code search page.
- Corresponding ICD-10 code(s) to help you become familiar with the new code set.
Code Notes: Attach a note to a code to make your searches more efficient
Many coders annotate their ICD-9 manual with sticky notes or comments in the margins
to make future code searches more efficient. Similarly, the ICD-9 Interactive can
be annotated. To create a note on a code page, click on Add User Note in the left-hand
column. A notes field will appear. Type in the note you want to have by that code.
When you have finished writing the note, click "save."
That note always will be returned when you search on that code, and can be edited
at any time by clicking on Edit User Note, moving your cursor to the text box and
editing as you would any document.
For a list of all code notes you’ve made or to search a specific note, click on
My Code Notes on the top navigation bar. The search will return
a list of annotated codes in descending numerical order. Find the code number. The
note you created will be in the left hand column. Clicking on the code number will
take you to that code page.
Regulations and Guidance: Resources ranging from source documentation to common
medical abbreviations
Click on this tab at the top of the
Home Health Coding Center
Home page and access:
- Searchable Medicare guidance at the national and state level
- Thousands of acronyms and abbreviations
- Coding Tools ranging from new codes to updated guidance to At a Glance features
- Official HIPAA and ICD-9-CM Guidance
- State resources
- And more!