Find out what your fibroid diagnosis options are for both ICD-9 and ICD-10.

If you’re reporting uterine fibroid removal, you need to know two things:

• Where the fibroid was located, so you can choose the diagnosis code.
• What method the obgyn used to take care of the growth.

Simplify this complicated coding scenario by busting the following four myths.You’ll know where to look in both your ICD and CPT manuals before the fibroid report lands on your desk.

Don’t Confuse Fibroids With Polyps

Myth: Fibroids and polyps are essentially the same thing.

Reality: True, fibroids and polyps are both growths, but one occurs in the endometrial lining while the other occurs in the muscle.

Polyps are small growths on the surface of the uterine wall that are easy for the ob-gyn to remove. In other words, “they are an overgrowth of the endometrial lining,” says David Glassman, DO, FACOG, medical director of Biltmore Women’s Health and Aesthetics and assistant program director at the department of obstetrics and gynecology residency at Banner Good Samaritan in Phoenix. “They’re intracavitary lesions.”

Fibroids (or myomas) are larger and are usually imbedded in the smooth muscle of the uterine wall. “They are almost always benign, but in rare circumstances, they can become a sarcoma (muscle cancer),” Glassman says. These growths require more work to remove, hence the procedures associated with fibroids tend to have more relative value units (RVUs). They occur in three main locations:

• Submucous fibroids (218.0) grow from the uterine wall toward the uterine cavity. They are also called intracavitary fibroids.
• Intramural fibroids (218.1) also called interstitial fibroids grow within the uterine wall (myometrium).
• Subserous fibroids (218.2) or subperitoneal fibroids grow outward from the uterine wall toward the abdominal cavity.

If the physician does not specify the location…