ICD-10-CM Chapters 18–21 Coding Guidelines | Signs & Symptoms, Injuries, External, and Z Codes

Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to week

eight, everyone. I'm Mrs. J, your

curriculum developer here at AMCI. I'm

one of them. And I'm proud. I'm so proud

of you. I'm proud of the forensic coders

you are

becoming. You know what? Or you already

were. You no longer just you're just no

longer learning about diseases. You're

thinking critically about applying those

guidelines and coding with integrity.

That means you're following the

guidelines. Okay, coders. Last week you

mastered well some of you've mastered

and some of you are more proficient and

I love it. Chapters 15 through 17 that's

pregnancy perinatal and congenital

anomalies.

Now, you know these some of these,

especially chapter 15, demanded that you

pay particular attention to sequencing

guidelines. That chapter 15 really had

some aha moments coming through. I saw

you. I did. Also, this week we're going

to be stepping into chapters 18, 19, 20,

and 21. This is signs and symptoms,

injuries, fractures, external causes,

and health status. And you know, the

injury section, we're going to talk

about um fractures, burns, and

poisonings. So, just to let you know,

there are like four subsections of

chapter 14 that we're going to focus on.

Now, before I go any further, I just

want to send a huge shout out to our

instructors and intern team who continue

to model excellence. You know what? To

me, they are among the best, if not the

best in the industry. And coders, you

are a part of a community that believes

in lifting each other

higher. Now with saying

that I want to talk to

you. All right. So I feel I need to say

this and I need to speak directly to

you. you YouTube

students, every question that you see in

this course was created just for

you. These questions are brand new,

generated using

AI and the instructional team reviews

these

questions. So that means there may be

some

mistakes. Every scenario will not have

the best or the most accurate code

because sometimes it takes four

passes for us to to get all of the kinks

out. It does. I don't think very many

programs have that ability to give it

four passes and to

offer original

scenarios never seen before just for

you. And this is a good thing because

that means

that

no, we aren't formatting these questions

so you can get them right. It means that

you're getting them right because you

are doing the work. Now, if you are are

attending a course like the AMCI,

um we have our main

course. Most of the questions in

our paid course don't have errors. And

the reason is is because it's gone

through more than four passes, maybe 10

passes. So, it's rare to see it and if

you do see it, we fix it immediately.

Also, we're fixing your questions and

the errors if any immediately. So, when

you bring it to our attention, we fix

it. And I just want to let you know some

of you are expressing some concern like,

"Wow, this is wrong. That's wrong." I

want to let you know that is very very

discouraging to other to your peers. You

shouldn't do

that. And why why would you do

that? Don't do that. Don't discourage

others by negativity. And you do not see

AMCI students, team, instructors,

interns, nobody. We don't do that here.

Okay? So, we only encourage because that

is what you need to succeed. We are not

here donating our

time to be undermined by negativity.

So please, if you feel you have

something to get off your chest, contact

success and we will listen. But do not

discourage your peers because your peers

are telling

me. So your peers have told me that

there are some of you that are doing

that. Please stop. All right. So that's

all I want to say.

Now you got questions. We got answers.

And I'm also going to let you marinate

on

that. All right. How to join Discord?

This is the most common question. I

think there's something going on. It is

not simple. You do have to click on any

any lecture or video that we have. Click

join. After you click join, you're going

to have to pay a premium.

Then you have to click the

Discord link. A Discord link should pop

up. All

right. After that link pops up, you'll

need to link your YouTube channel.

You're going to pop into the Discord.

Now, you'll need to link your YouTube

channel. And this is how you do it.

You're in Discord. And on the right,

this is what you see. But down below in

the right corner right here, you'll see

a cog wheel. Click on

it. Then you're going to see this menu.

Click on

connections. Then you're going to see

all of the platforms that you can

connect to. And you're not going to see

YouTube right away because it's at the

end. So click the continue button until

you come to YouTube. Then follow the

prompts. Now make sure you use the same

email that you use on or with your

YouTube channel. Okay? Make sure your

Discord and your YouTube emails are the

same.

CPT is copyright of 2025 AMA. All rights

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reserved. Keyword concept FTR Chun AMCI

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CPC, CRC, COC, CPMA, CPB, CPP, M, CPCO

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the rights to these

credentials. Goals of the presentation

for week eight. Number one, we're going

to review chapter 18, signs and

symptoms. Number two, chapter 19,

injuries. Number three, chapter 20,

external causes. And number four,

chapter 21, health status guidelines.

All for ICD10 CM section one.

Don't forget to follow along in your MCG

manual. Go ahead and flip to chapter

18. I think this is the best way to

follow along. The guidelines are laid

out a little nicer because you have the

sequencing order. However, if you don't

have the MCG manual, go ahead and use

the official ICD10 CM guidelines

published by CMS. The link is in the

chat. It's also outlined in order.

However, the sequencing order is not

there, but this is a good time to write

it down. All right, let's go ahead and

let's get started on chapter 18, signs

and symptoms.

All right, coders. Welcome to chapter 18

of ICD10 CM. We dive into coding signs

and symptoms and abnormal findings that

do not have a confirmed diagnosis. You

all have studied this, right? The signs

and symptom guidelines are actually the

general coding guidelines, right? These

signs and symptom guidelines are also

found in section four which we've

reviewed in week one of this course.

Right? So again we know what this is.

These are things like fever, chest pain,

nausea, abnormal blood test. So these

are signs and symptoms that do not have

a confirmed diagnosis. So, let's go

ahead and talk about some key FTRs that

you should know or be aware of when

coding for chapter

18. Number one,

coders, did you know that a

sign is what the physician can

observe? Yeah. Think of a stop sign.

We'll let that

marinate. Number two, a symptom is what

the patient

feels. Yeah. So only the patient can

provide a