The Validity of Discharge Billing Codes Reflecting Severe Maternal Morbidity.

CONCLUSIONS: ICD-9-CM codes capturing severe maternal morbidity during delivery hospitalization demonstrate a range of PPVs. The PPV was high when objective supportive evidence, such as laboratory values or procedure documentation supported the ICD-9-CM code. The PPV was low when greater judgment, interpretation, and synthesis of the clinical data (signs and symptoms) was required to support a code, such as with the category Severe anesthesia complications. As a result, these codes should be used for administrative research with more caution compared with codes primarily defined by objective data.
PMID: 27387839 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Source: Anesthesia and Analgesia - July 4, 2016 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: Sigakis MJ, Leffert LR, Mirzakhani H, Sharawi N, Rajala B, Callaghan WM, Kuklina EV, Creanga AA, Mhyre JM, Bateman BT Tags: Anesth Analg Source Type: research