ICD-10-CM Mnemonics are updated for 2020.
As the healthcare industry is celebrating the fifth anniversary of the adoption of ICD-10-CM/PCS, an appropriate celebration to mark the occasion would be to revisit Learning ICD-10-CM by Mnemonics, which has been updated for 2020.
The table below provides chapters, beginning letters of the chapters, mnemonics, and the official chapter titles.
| Chapter | Beginning Letter(s) | Mnemonic | Chapter Title |
| Chapter 1 | A, B | Advancing Bugs | Infectious and Parasitic Diseases |
| Chapter 2 | C, D | Cancer, Death | Neoplasm |
| Chapter 3 | D | Dracula | Diseases of Blood and Blood Forming Organs |
| Chapter 4 | E | Endocrine | Endocrine, Nutritional, and Metabolic Diseases |
| Chapter 5 | F | Freud | Mental, Behavioral, and Neurodevelopmental Disorders |
| Chapter 6 | G | “Gittery” | Diseases of Nervous System |
| Chapter 7 | H | Hyphema | Diseases of Eye and Adnexa |
| Chapter 8 | H | Hearing | Diseases of Ear and Mastoid Process |
| Chapter 9 | I | Infarction | Diseases of the Circulatory System |
| Chapter 10 | J | Just Gasping | Diseases of the Respiratory System |
| Chapter 11 | K | Knot in Stomach | Diseases of Digestive System |
| Chapter 12 | L | Lipoma | Diseases of Skin and Subcutaneous Tissue |
| Chapter 13 | M | Musculoskeletal | Diseases of Musculoskeletal System |
| Chapter 14 | N | Nocturia | Diseases of Genitourinary System |
| Chapter 15 | O | Obstetrics | Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Puerperium |
| Chapter 16 | P | Perinatal | Certain Conditions Originating in the Perinatal Period |
| Chapter 17 | Q | Quirky | Congenital Malformations, Deformations, and Chromosomal Abnormalities |
| Chapter 18 | R | Relative Symptoms | Symptoms, Signs, and Abnormal Clinical and Laboratory Findings, Not Elsewhere Classified |
| Chapter 19 | S, T | Simply Traumatic | Injury, Poisoning, and Certain Other Consequences of External Causes |
| Chapter 20 | V, W, X, Y | Vehicles, Woops, eXposure, whY | External Causes of Morbidity |
| Chapter 21 | Z | Zero Problems | Factors Influencing Healthcare Status and Contact with Health Services |
| Chapter 22 – New | U | Unusual | Codes for Special Purposes |
The World Health Organization (WHO) added Chapter 22 to ICD-10 with the advent of COVID-19 and the need to accommodate the new code for vaping-related disorders. Consequently, the chapter was added to ICD-10-CM as well.
The diagnosis codes are easier to think about when you know the general area that is included in the code. You can test these mnemonics and see if it helps you remember the diagnosis codes.
Programming Note: Laurie Johnson is a permanent panelist on Talk Ten Tuesdays. Listen to her live reporting on ICD-10 codes every Tuesday at 10 a.m. EST.
This week I thought I would revisit the concept of what provider documentation is. It is becoming increasingly difficult for clinical documentation integrity (CDI) and
UnitedHealthcare (UHC) Medicare Advantage will begin reinforcing denialsbased on its interpretation of the International Classification of Disease, 10 thEdition, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) Excludes 1.(https://www.uhcprovider.com/content/dam/provider/docs/public/policies/medadv-reimbursement/rpub/UHC-MEDADV-RPUB-JAN-2026.pdf) As
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