S70-S79 — Injuries to the hip and thigh
ICD-10-CM codes S70-S79 cover injuries to the hip and thigh, within injury, poisoning and certain other consequences of external causes. The block holds 4,214 codes across 10 categories, of which 3,546 are billable and 668 are header codes that cannot be submitted on a claim. 4,214 of them (100%) require a 7th character.
The 7th character in S70-S79
A code in this block is not complete without its 7th character, and a missing one is a rejected claim rather than a denied one: the clearinghouse never passes it on. 4,214 of the 4,214 codes here take one.
- A
- initial encounter
- D
- subsequent encounter
- S
- sequela
Risk adjustment in S70-S79
0 codes in this block map to a CMS-HCC, which means the diagnosis carries a risk-adjustment payment when it is documented and coded. Under-coding here is money left on the table; over-coding here is what audits are for.
- HCC 402 Hip Fracture/Dislocation
- HCC 405 Traumatic Amputations and Complications
What else to watch in S70-S79
- 2,690 codes are laterality-specific. They come in left and right pairs, and the pair is mutually exclusive on a single site: coding both without a bilateral code is a contradiction a scrubber should catch before the payer does.
- 2,849 codes are named in Medicare coverage policies. An LCD or NCD lists them as supporting medical necessity, or explicitly as not supporting it. Which applies depends on the MAC for your state.
Categories in S70-S79
- S70Superficial injury of hip and thigh
- S71Open wound of hip and thigh
- S72Fracture of femur
- S73Dislocation and sprain of joint and ligaments of hip
- S74Injury of nerves at hip and thigh level
- S75Injury of blood vessels at hip and thigh level
- S76Injury of muscle, fascia and tendon at hip and thigh level
- S77Crushing injury of hip and thigh
- S78Traumatic amputation of hip and thigh
- S79Other and unspecified injuries of hip and thigh