The Difference between ICD-9 and ICD-10 Codes

Alex Hass — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 18:38:47 +0000

ICD-10 codes differ from ICD-9 codes in their basic form and structure, which is good news for anyone who needs to be able to differentiate between the two without being familiar with individual codes. ICD-10 codes tend to be longer than ICD-9 codes and to have more flexibility as to whether characters can be numbers or letters. See below for additional details.

ICD-9 diagnosis codes have 3-5 characters. The characters are all numbers, except for supplementary codes – V and E codes.

ICD-10 diagnosis codes have 3-7 characters. The first character is always a letter, and the rest can be letters or numbers.

ICD-9 Example

ICD-10 Example

ICD-10 AnTENna » Alex Hass

The Difference between ICD-9 and ICD-10 Codes