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Documentation and Coding: Major Depressive Disorder October 18, 2022 Claims & Coding Medical Policy & Clinical Guidelines

A quick reference guide to assist with accurate, complete documentation and coding that reflects the true nature of a patient’s current health status at the highest level of specificity.

Per ICD-10 official guidelines for reporting and coding “The importance of consistent, complete documentation in the medical record cannot be overemphasized. Without such documentation accurate coding cannot be achieved.”  

DSM-5 Criteria for Major Depressive Disorder: The individual must be experiencing five or more symptoms during the same 2-week period and at least one of the symptoms should be either (1) depressed mood or (2) loss of interest or pleasure.

  • Decreased interest of pleasure in most activities, most of each day
  • Depressed mood or irritable most of the day
  • Fatigue or loss of energy
  • Significant weight change (5 percent) or change in appetite 
  • Change in sleep: Insomnia or hypersomnia 
  • Change in activity: Psychomotor agitation or retardation
  • Guilt/worthlessness: feeling of worthlessness or excessive inappropriate guilt 
  • Concentration: diminished ability to think or concentrate, or more indecisiveness
  • Suicidality: thoughts of death or suicide, or has suicide plan

Documentation and Coding Guidance

Documentation needs to be clear and detailed using the following terms to allow accurate ICD10 code selection 

Specificity: 

  • Episode Type: Single or recurrent episode 
  • Current state:  
    • New onset 
    • Partial remission: patient without any significant symptoms for less than two months timeframe 
    • Full remission: patient has no significant depressive symptoms present during the last two months or more 
  • Severity: mild, moderate, severe, severe with psychotic features

Treatment: Document treatment (medication, psychotherapy, or a combination of both) and current response to treatment. 

ICD 10 CodeDescription: Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), single episode ICD 10 CodeDescription: Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), recurrent 
F32.0“     “, mild F33.0 “     “, mild
F32.1 “     “, moderate F33.1 “     “, moderate
F32.2“     “, severe without psychotic features F33.2 “     “, severe without psychotic features 
F32.3 

“     “, severe with psychotic features

F33.3 “     “, severe with psychotic features
F32.4 “     “, in partial remission F33.40“     “, in remission, unspecified
F32.5“     “, in full remissionF33.41“     “, in remission, in partial remission 
F32.9“     “, unspecified F33.42“     “, in remission, in full remission
  F33.9“     “, unspecified

Other Depression ICD10 codes

  • F32A = Depression, unspecified 
  • F32.81 = Premenstrual dysphoric disorder
  • F32.89 = Other specified depressive episodes 
  • F33.8 = Other recurrent depressive disorders
  • F34.9 = Persistent mood (affective) disorder, unspecified

References

www.psychiatry.org  - American Psychiatric Association – Depression  

Optum 360 – Encoder Pro – Major Depression 

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 5 (DSM-5) 

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