ABSTRACT
Worker's Compensation and Personal Injury claims by their very nature focus on External Cause coding. External causes are found in Chapter 19 of International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10) under the heading Injury, Poisoning and Certain Other Consequences of External Causes. The code for the most serious injury, as deter mined by the provider, and the focus of treatment, is sequenced first. Fractures of specified sites are coded individually by site in accordance with provisions within categories and the level of detail furnished by the medical record. ICD-10 provides for much greater data on injuries. When the patient is a Workers' Compensation or Personal Injury patient and the pain is the result of an External Cause, then the use of an External Cause S code is required. In the case of Worker's Compensation or Personal Injury patients, the appropriate External Cause S code should be used when treatment is for an externally caused injury.
