HealthAugust 16, 2023

Need-to-know highlights from the 2024 ICD-10-CM code updates

By: RoseZetta Lima
Read The Latest Article: The 2025 ICD-10-CM Update Breakdown: New, Deleted, And Revised Codes
Latest Article: The 2025 ICD-10-CM Update Breakdown: New, Deleted, And Revised Codes
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The new updates to the ICD-10-CM code system for fiscal year 2024 include 395 new billable codes in areas such as external causes of morbidity, social determinants of health (SDOH), and osteoporosis.

The turbulence of the COVID pandemic has finally leveled out to some normalcy in the coding world, most notably with CMS surprising us with the lowest number of codes in recent years.  A total of 395 new billable codes made the cut for 2024, along with 25 deletions and 13 revisions.

Highlights from the new 2024 ICD-10-CM codes

ICD-10 codes for external causes of morbidity

Kids and adults alike will say and do the darndest things, won’t they?  Interestingly enough, CMS thought so too! The biggest remodel in this year’s codes lands us in the middle of Chapter 20 – External Causes of Morbidity (V00-Y99) with almost half of this year’s new codes.  Whether it’s a child seeing if the toy will fit up their nose, or if a pencil can go in one ear and out of the other, CMS brought the granularity that your favorite comedy television writer could appreciate.

123 code updates in Chapter 20 – External Causes of Morbidity (V00-Y99) capture details around accidents and injuries.

W44.B3xA Plastic toy and toy part entering into or through a natural orifice, initial encounter
W44.H0xA Other sharp object unspecified, entering into or through a natural orifice, initial encounter
W44.F0xA  Objects of natural or organic material unspecified, entering into or through a natural orifice, initial encounter
W44.F3xA Food entering into or through a natural orifice, initial encounter
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SDoH ICD-10 codes

Several social determinants of health (SdoH) codes were added including 8 of the 30 new codes in Chapter 21 - Factors Influencing Health Status and Contact with Health Services (Z00-Z99), which capture details related to child upbringing.

Z62.23 Child in custody of non-parental relative
Z62.24 Child in custody of non-relative guardian
Z62.823 Parent-step child conflict
Z62.83 Non-parental relative or guardian-child conflict
Z62.831 Non-parental relative-child conflict
Z62.832 Non-relative guardian-child conflict
Z62.833 Group home staff-child conflict
Z62.892 Runaway [from current living environment]

Osteoporosis ICD-10 codes

Chapter 13 - Diseases of the Musculoskeletal System and Connective Tissue (M00-M99) contains 42 new codes to help further define osteoporosis with pathological fracture. Some examples:

M80.8B2P Other osteoporosis with current pathological fracture, left pelvis, subsequent encounter for fracture with malunion
M80.8B9D Other osteoporosis with current pathological fracture, unspecified pelvis, subsequent encounter for fracture with routine healing
M80.0B1K Age-related osteoporosis with current pathological fracture, right pelvis, subsequent encounter for fracture with nonunion
M80.0B2G Age-related osteoporosis with current pathological fracture, left pelvis, subsequent encounter for fracture with delayed healing

Diseases of the eye and adnexa ICD-10 codes

Out of the 45 new codes in Chapter 7 - Diseases of the Eye and Adnexa (H00-H59), 29 of them break down orbital muscle entrapment, and identify which part of the muscle is affected.  Muscle and soft tissue entrapment happens when a fractured bone displaced by the fracturing force moves back towards its normal non-displaced position, trapping tissue into the fracture site.  This condition happens more often in children. A sample:

H50.621 Inferior oblique muscle entrapment, right eye
H50.649 Lateral rectus muscle entrapment, unspecified eye
H50.662 Superior oblique muscle entrapment, left eye
H50.651 Medial rectus muscle entrapment, right eye

Other chapters, like Chapter 17 - Congenital Malformations, Deformations and Chromosomal Abnormalities (Q00-Q99) reported significant code changes to add granularity for conditions such as craniosynostosis, Parkinson’s, and epilepsy.

Streamline updating ICD-10-CM codes across the organization

As always, October 1 will be here before we know it. Even as the turbulence in the medical coding world stabilizes, updating clinical terminologies across all systems and departments within a health system or health plan is an enormous task. It’s estimated that it takes one full-time engineer at least 10 hours to update one dataset with over 25 reference tables and/or value sets!

A data governance solution backed by expert clinical terminologists, can help your organization quickly leverage updated, quality data and ensure you have plenty of time for an accurate, governed system configuration before CMS deadlines.

Reach out today to learn more. 

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RoseZetta Lima
RoseZetta Lima
Clinical Consultant, Health Language
As a Consultant, RoseZetta supports the company’s Health Language solutions by updating content through standard bodies and content maintenance related to ICD-10, SNOMED and PFTs. She also aids clients with mapping and content development, and supports sales by crafting content presentations. 
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Health Language Data Interoperability
Manage and maintain your enterprise healthcare data in a single platform for authoring, modeling, and mapping to industry standards to enable semantic interoperability.
Data Interoperability Suite

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