How to document and code for hypertensive diseases in ICD-10.

Because ICD-10 can be a distressing topic, let’s start with some good news: Hypertension has a limited number of ICD-10 codes – only nine codes for primary hypertension and five codes for secondary hypertension. This makes the task of coding hypertension relatively simple – well, at least compared to some of the other ICD-10 complexities. Another positive change in ICD-10 is that the new code set drops the previous reference to benign and malignant hypertension. As physicians, we are well aware that hypertension is never truly “benign,” and the removal of this antiquated term is a welcome improvement in the lexicon of diseases. But, of course, nothing is easy in ICD-10, and there are several things you need to be aware of before we dig into the codes themselves. For example, the hypertensive disease codes in ICD-10 exclude several conditions: hypertension complicating pregnancy, neonatal hypertension, primary pulmonary hypertension, and primary and secondary hypertension involving vessels of the brain or the eye. Postprocedural hypertension is also excluded from the secondary hypertension codes. In addition, you’ll need to be careful throughout the “Diseases of the Circulatory System” chapter of ICD-10 to differentiate the capital “I” from the number “1.” The hypertension codes span from I10 to I15 (there is no I14), and each series has its own peculiarities, as this article will explain.