What about reporting “COPD and asthma?” Is one code required or two and why? Refer again to your index: “disease,” “lung,” “obstructive, with asthma” leads to J44.9. Therefore, the only code that is needed is J47.1 to report the diagnosis of “COPD with exacerbation of bronchiectasis.” You will note there is no excludes1 note for J44.9 COPD. Next, follow the indentation further: “with bronchiectasis,” and then, “with exacerbation.” Notice “acute” is also a non-essential modifier. Refer to your ICD-10-CM Index: “disease,” then “lung,” and then “obstructive.” Notice “chronic” is a non-essential modifier. To begin with, we are going to look at COPD with an exacerbation of bronchiectasis. It may be helpful to follow along in your code book. The issue was understanding why certain codes can be coded together and why certain codes cannot. Recently I spent some time looking at a few respiratory codes to help a student and I thought I would share what I found.

By Angela Lima, BS, CCS, CDIP, COC, CIC, AAPC-Approved Instructor

Icd 10 code for copd