Your medical coding career isn’t going the right way if you do not establish medical necessity. Work smartly rather than working hard. Medical necessity is a legal concept because incorrect diagnosis codes or incorrect ICD-9 codes technically represent a false statement. Now, that’s what you call a false claim. Right? Before you look up to diverse resources to get the answers, take a good look at your ICD-9 book. You’ll find most of the answers you need to ensure accurate coding every time – right there in the ICD-9 book. All you have to do is – know where to look and the order in which to work. Stabilize your medical coding career with these easy step-by-step guidelines for accurate ICD-9 coding: • Determine the key term for the situation you’re trying to code. • Locate your key term in the index of procedures so you’ll know where to find the codes you need. • Go through all the extra information the book gives about the codes you need to use. This is really very important. • Determine if there are any modifiers you need to use. • Review the sub-terms to see if any of them apply to your situation. Find them listed underneath your main code, indented to the right. • Follow any cross-reference instructions you lay hands on. • Verify the code. Don’t ever just take the code from the alphabetical index listing, because sometimes it is going to be more detailed in the tabular listing. • Read the instructional notes thoroughly. • Assign verified codes. After you have used the codes, make sure they are the most specific. Tip – Three-digit codes are only to be used if no four-digit codes fall within that category. Four-digit codes are to be used if there are no five-digit codes within the code category. Try to avoid all nonspecific codes.