FIBROMYALGIA is finally recognized as an official diagnosis! Please share THIS INFORMATION

Fibromyalgia is finally recognized as an official diagnosis! Please share this information

On October 1, 2015, fibromyalgia, finally has its own code official diagnosis of ICD-10-CM codes formally approved in the US

ICD-10-CM, acronym for the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, Clinical Modification, is a list of diagnostic codes by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the National Center for Health Statistics to be used for medical information in the US ICD-10-CM is based on ICD-10, the statistical classification of diseases published by the World Health Organization.

ICD codes are widely used in the health industry, including doctors, insurance companies and government agencies. They are used to identify diseases and disorders diagnosed and classify.

use before 1 October in the diagnosis of a patient with fibromyalgia, doctors were general code 729.1 – myalgia and myositis, unspecified. Any type of muscle pain or inflammation can be incorporated into that code. But FM is recognized as a separate entity with its own code M79.7 – Fibromyalgia.

Why is this important? 

There are many potential benefits of an ICD-10-CM code for fibromyalgia, but four, in particular, come to mind.

The fact that fibromyalgia has its own diagnostic code makes it almost impossible for doctors who insist that it is not real. The World Health Organization and the US government have given their official approval.
ICD-10-CM codes are used by insurance companies, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement decision-making. So far, some insurance companies refuse to cover treatments for fibromyalgia, insisting that it is not a real disease. They can not say the same.
Despite the handicap claims that they are not determined solely on the basis of a diagnosis that recognized fibromyalgia as a legitimate diagnosis is one of the reasons, it is sometimes used as a basis for the denial and can lead to disability has a little bit easier to win eliminate has.
Another diagnostic code will improve the coherence of research on fibromyalgia. Ginevra Liptaň, MD pointed out in his recent article in the National Report of Pain, “The new code will also allow closer examination of the results of the treatment of fibromyalgia, the details of many of these observational studies are collected by following diagnostic codes. Without its own diagnostic code, fibromyalgia studies have been hampered by the gouaches data including patients who actually fibro, but another disease that causes muscle pain. ”

The culmination of a long journey

The trip to the legitimacy fibromyalgia has been fought long and hard. After letting it languish in obscurity for many years, one by one, the US government began to realize that fibromyalgia is real.

 The FDA cleared the way in 2007, when the first drug for the treatment of FM approved. Then in 2012, the Social Security Administration issued a ruling that recognizes fibromyalgia as a legitimate impediment. Now, in 2015, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the National Center for Health Statistics have a diagnosis code official FM.

This completes the trifecta of legitimacy and is a milestone worthy of celebration!

Karen Lee Richards ProHealth editor. A fibromyalgia patient, she co-founded the non-profit organization now known as the National Association Fibromyalgia (NFA) and served as its vice president for eight years. He was also the editor of Fibromyalgia AWARE, the first full-color, glossy magazine dedicated to FM and other invisible illnesses. After leaving the NFA, Karen served as the guide for fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome About.com A New York Times Company, and then as the Guide to Chronic Pain Health Health Central Network.

Reference: todayhealth247