T70.3 — Caisson disease [decompression sickness]
T70.3 is a non-billable header ICD-10-CM code for caisson disease [decompression sickness]. It cannot be billed on its own: choose one of the more specific child codes below. This code also requires a 7th character before it is complete.
This code requires a 7th character
The appropriate 7th character is to be added to each code from category T70
- A
- initial encounter
- D
- subsequent encounter
- S
- sequela
Inclusion terms
Alternative wordings a physician may use in the chart for this same code.
- Compressed-air disease
- Diver's palsy or paralysis
Risk adjustment
T70.3 does not map to an HCC and does not risk-adjust under CMS-HCC V28. That is normal — most ICD-10 codes do not. It still needs to be coded correctly; it just will not move a RAF score.
How T70.3 is indexed
Coders do not find codes by browsing the tabular list — they look them up in the alphabetic index, under the word the physician wrote. These are the index entries that lead here, so you can see which chart wordings map to T70.3.
- Aerobullosis
- Aeroembolism
- Bends
- Caisson disease
- Chokes(resulting from bends)
- Compressed air disease
- Decompression sickness
- Diver's palsy, paralysis or squeeze
- Dysbarism
- Squeeze, diver's
- Air›compressed, disease
- Arthralgia›in caisson disease
Code to one of these instead T70.3
3 child codes. Green means billable.
Related codes at this level
Codes that share T70. If T70.3 is not quite right, the correct code is usually one of these.
Questions about T70.3
- Is T70.3 a billable ICD-10-CM code?
- No. T70.3 is a non-billable header code. Code to a higher level of specificity using one of its child codes.
- Where does T70.3 sit in the tabular list?
- Injury, poisoning and certain other consequences of external causes (S00-T88), in the block Other and unspecified effects of external causes (T66-T78).