What are the most common ICD-10 codes for animal-inflicted injuries?

The switch to the ICD-10 medical coding system in 2015 marked a significant transition in U.S. healthcare. Beforehand, the U.S. had been using an older International Classification of Diseases model called ICD-9 since 1979.

One major expansion area and difference between the two code sets related to specific niche diagnosis categories like animal-inflicted injuries.

What are the differences between the ICD-10 and ICD-9 code sets?

The ICD-10 code set contains 68,100 more procedure codes and 55,798 more diagnosis codes than the ICD-9 code set. With so many new codes, ICD-10 significantly improved the level of specificity in medical coding. This specificity helps describe the cause, severity, and bodily location of a specific illness or injury.

By comparing related diagnosis and procedure codes, users can track medical coding and billing changes over time.

How are ICD-10 codes for animal-inflicted injuries different from ICD-9 codes?

The ICD-10 code set contains over 300 diagnoses related to animal-inflicted injuries. These ICD-10 diagnoses offer precise detail about the type of animal encounter. In the ICD-10 code set, these animal encounters can range from “pecked by turkey” (ICD-10 code W6143XA), to “struck by cow” (ICD-10 code W5522XA), or “crushed by crocodile” (ICD-10 code W5813XA).

The ICD-9 system contained only 20 diagnosis codes for any injury resulting from an animal encounter. The diagnosis codes themselves were broad and contained none of the same detail that the ICD-10 codes do.

How do ICD-10 codes improve documentation for animal-related injuries?

Because ICD-10 codes are so specific about illness and injury origin, clinical documentation is much more detailed than the ICD-9 system.

For instance, an accidental injury like “toxic effect of bee venom, accidental” (ICD-10 code T63441A) has a different diagnosis code than a purposeful injury like “toxic effect of bee venom, intentional self-harm” (ICD-10 code T63442A).

With more robust documentation, healthcare providers better understand their patients’ medical histories. This can improve a physician’s ability to make informed treatment decisions.

Top 10 most common injuries related to nonvenomous animals

Fig 1. Data is from Definitive Healthcare’s ClaimsMx.Represents the most common physicians’ diagnoses for nonvenomous animal-related injuries ranked by the total number of diagnoses from January – August 2022. Accessed September 2022.

What is the most common animal injury?

Insect-related injuries dominate the list with seven out of the top 10. The most common injury related to nonvenomous animals is “bitten or stung by nonvenomous insect and other nonvenomous arthropods, initial encounter” (ICD-10 code W57XXXA).

Additionally, there are six additional diagnoses for “Insect bite (nonvenomous)” on the list. Each of these diagnoses is related to a different area of the body, demonstrating just how specific the ICD-10 code set can get. Tick bites or mosquito bites – both fairly common bug bites – would fall under all these insect-related diagnoses.

Outside of the diagnoses related to insects, injuries from dog bites and cat bites round out the top 10. “Bitten by dog” shows up twice – first for the initial encounter and then for a subsequent encounter, meaning injuries were severe enough that patients had to return for subsequent care or treatment.

At least 57% of U.S. households have a pet, with dogs and cats as two of the most popular animals. As people have frequent interactions with dogs and cats, it makes sense that injuries from these animals appear in the top 10. Additionally, dog bites and cat bites can be severe and pose a risk of infection, meaning more people are likely to seek out medical care after being bitten.

Top 10 most common injuries related to venomous animals

Fig 2. Data is from Definitive Healthcare’s ClaimsMx. Represents the most common physicians’ diagnoses for venomous animal-related injuries ranked by the total number of diagnoses from January – August 2022. Accessed September 2022

What are the most common injuries related to venomous animals?

Bee, wasp and hornet stings cause the majority of venomous animal encounters. “Toxic effect of venom of wasps, accidental (unintentional), subsequent encounter” (ICD-10 code T63461D) is the most common injury related to venomous animals.

Subsequent encounters for injuries related to wasps, hornets and ants have a higher volume of diagnoses than initial encounters with these insects, indicating that patients may require multiple visits or treatments. As these animals are venomous, reactions to bites or stings from them are likely to be more severe than non-venomous animals.

What is the difference between the IDC-10 and ICD-9 codes for venomous animals?

There is a notable difference between the ICD-10 codes and their corresponding ICD-9 codes. There are ten unique ICD-10 diagnosis codes. Meanwhile, there are only two corresponding ICD-9 codes on the list: 9895 and V5889.

ICD-9 code 9895 broadly describes the toxic effect of venom, and code V5889 is used for all subsequent encounters to describe “other specified aftercare.” In comparison, the ICD-10 codes differentiate between the type of insect, the nature of the encounter, and how many times a patient sought care for that injury.

The specificity of these codes can be helpful for healthcare organizations targeting a particular patient population.

Will there be an ICD-11?

The World Health Organization (WHO) released its 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) in June 2018, and it officially went into effect in January 2022.

However, ICD-11 is not ready for implementation in the United States yet. According to a 2018 report from the CDC, the earliest the U.S. would implement ICD-11 would be 2023; however, it might take longer.

What is the difference between ICD-11 and ICD-10?

Each new ICD update allows for more precise data collection and analysis.

Much like the ICD-10 codes provide more specificity than the ICD-9 codes, ICD-11 codes offer further improvements to the number of diagnostic terms and their specificity. Updates to the code set reflect critical advances in science and medication, aligning classification with the latest disease treatment and prevention knowledge.

Since WHO first released ICD-10 in 1989, healthcare has undergone a drastic digital revolution. ICD-11 is designed to be digital health ready, allowing it to be used in multiple IT environments with new APIs.

Learn more

Definitive Healthcare’s ClaimsMx allows users to search for ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes, as well as by DRG, CPT or HCPCS codes.

Interested in learning more about our ClaimsMx data? Book a free trial today to see how we can help you gain visibility into diagnosis and procedure activity, insight into patient journeys, provider treatment patterns and advanced payment analytics.