SIRS criteria include:
• Septicemia – There is NO code for septicemia in ICD-10. Instead, you’re directed to a combination ‘A’ code for sepsis to indicate the underlying infection, such A41.9 (Sepsis, unspecified organism) for septicemia with no further detail. Note: ‘A’ codes for Sepsis in ICD-10 include both the underlying infection
Can you code bacteremia and sepsis together? Bacteremia. Bacteremia is the presence of bacteria in the blood as evidenced by a positive blood culture. It is often transient and of no consequence; however, sustained bacteremia may lead to widespread infection and sepsis. Based on the “excludes 1” note, bacteremia should never be coded with ...
81, Bacteremia, is a symptom code with an Exclude1 note stating it can't be used with sepsis and that additional documentation related to the cause of the infection, i.e., gram-negative bacteria, salmonella, etc., would be needed for correct code assignment.
ICD-10 code R78. 81 for Bacteremia is a medical classification as listed by WHO under the range - Symptoms, signs and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings, not elsewhere classified .
If a patient is admitted because of bacteremia, it should be the principal diagnosis even though bacteremia is a symptom code, because it is the condition that occasioned the admission.
According to the guidelines above, sepsis would be the appropriate principal diagnosis if it is the reason the patient is admitted, and meets the definition of principal diagnosis.
Bacteremia is the presence of bacteria in the blood, hence a microbiological finding. Sepsis is a clinical diagnosis needing further specification regarding focus of infection and etiologic pathogen, whereupon clinicians, epidemiologists and microbiologists apply different definitions and terminology.
Bacteremia is the simple presence of bacteria in the blood while Septicemia is the presence and multiplication of bacteria in the blood. Septicemia is also known as blood poisoning.
Now, bacteremia is the principal diagnosis, it won't change your DRG, though it could certainly affect quality concerns and medical necessity.
Coding sepsis requires a minimum of two codes: a code for the systemic infection (e.g., 038. xx) and the code 995.91, SIRS due to infectious process without organ dysfunction. If no causal organism is documented within the medical record, query the physician or assign code 038.9, Unspecified septicemia.
Gram-negative sepsis, unspecified A41. 50 is a billable/specific ICD-10-CM code that can be used to indicate a diagnosis for reimbursement purposes. The 2022 edition of ICD-10-CM A41. 50 became effective on October 1, 2021.
Septicemia – There is NO code for septicemia in ICD-10. Instead, you're directed to a combination 'A' code for sepsis to indicate the underlying infection, such A41. 9 (Sepsis, unspecified organism) for septicemia with no further detail.
Other instances when sepsis would not be selected as the principal diagnosis, even if it was POA include the scenario where sepsis is the result of a condition which is classified as a “medical complication” (such as being due to an indwelling urinary catheter or central line.
Similar to ICD-9-CM, an additional code may be assigned to identify the specific infection such as sepsis (A41. 9) in ICD-10-CM.