Most Frequently Used Mental Health ICD-10 Codes
November 19, 2024
To gain insight into U.S. health trends, SimplePractice identified the 20 most common ICD-10 codes used by mental health practitioners when billing health insurance.
This list of the most common mental health ICD codes (aka International Classification of Disease codes) used by solo and small group behavioral health providers reveals the mental health conditions most frequently diagnosed in America over the past year.
We gathered the top mental health ICD-10 codes from over 200,000 U.S.-based clinicians who use SimplePractice’s HIPAA-compliant electronic EHR for therapists to manage their practices, minimize administrative work, and streamline filing and tracking insurance claims.
What are ICD-10 codes used for?
ICD codes stand for International Classification of Disease codes.
The World Health Organization (WHO) released the ICD-10 diagnosis codes list in 1994.
If you’re wondering why ICD codes are so important, it’s because they’re used by medical professionals and clinicians worldwide to report causes of illness and death. Essentially, ICD codes are a standard diagnostic language to identify health and disease trends across countries.
They’re also used to describe a diagnosis when billing insurance.
Top-billed ICD-10 diagnosis codes list
This mental health ICD codes report shows the most frequently billed ICD-10 codes used by behavioral health practitioners.
From this International Classification of Disease codes list, we get a glimpse into America’s most commonly diagnosed mental health conditions.
Perhaps it’s not surprising that the most-billed ICD code in America was for F41.1—generalized anxiety disorder. This diagnosis has been the top-billed code in 2021, and even back in 2019 and 2017 as well.
If you’ve been wondering why it seems so many people have been diagnosed with ADHD, you’re not imagining it. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, unspecified type debuted on the list this year at number 20.
Additionally, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, combined type and attention-deficit disorder, predominantly inattentive type (which are the ADHD types more frequently diagnosed among girls and adult women) each moved higher on the list this year to number 11 and number 13, respectively.
Autistic disorder, F84.0, also moved up four spots—from number 20 last year to number 16 on the ICD-10 codes 2022 list. Autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, can sometimes go undiagnosed until adulthood, and it’s helpful to be aware of the signs and symptoms of adult autism.
Top 20 mental health ICD-10 codes
Changes to ICD codes in 2022
On January 1, 2022, the WHO released ICD-11, and it’s now used by over 35 countries worldwide.
ICD-11 aligns classifications with the latest knowledge of disease prevention and treatment.
Some notable differences between icd 10 and icd 11 include:
- New core chapters for “diseases of the immune system,” “sleep-wake disorders,” and “conditions related to sexual health.”
- Overall coding improvements to allow more precise data collection, including new codes for antimicrobial resistance, specific coding for clinical stages of HIV, codes for common skin cancers, and more.
- Improved ease of coding requires less user-training, and new availability for online and offline functioning
To learn more about the updates to ICD-11, visit the WHO’s website where you’ll find more resources on the changes and how to implement them in your practice.
When do you have to actually start using ICD-11?
There’s often a delay between when ICD updates are published and when they actually begin to be used, and the ICD-11 is no exception.
Although the updates officially became available to member states of the WHO as of January 1, 2022, the U.S. does not yet have an official plan for rollout, and ICD-11 may not be implemented in the U.S. until 2025.
It’s up to each country to make the shift, and it’ll take some time for the U.S. to transition from ICD-10 to ICD-11.
How ICD code updates impact your practice
Since ICD codes are used across multiple healthcare fields, there will likely be numerous codes in each update that don’t apply to your billing.
That said, you do want to review the annual updates carefully—if you use a deleted code that’s no longer recognized, or try to use an old version of a code, the reimbursement for that service may be denied.
If you have a list of the previous codes that you use frequently in your practice, you can use the “Search” Function in documents from CMS to only look directly for what you need. That way you can quickly determine what changes, if any, have been made to your most regularly used codes and make the necessary adjustments to your billing documents.
The world of insurance billing for mental health practitioners can get complicated. To avoid getting stuck in endless billing conversations, set aside a block of time to review all the new information thoroughly.
How SimplePractice streamlines running your practice
SimplePractice is HIPAA-compliant practice management software that makes it easy to create, submit, track, and reconcile insurance claims all in one place—no more spreadsheets, separate logins, or ledgers.
This will help you to become confident your billing is set up and running correctly. Consequently, you can reduce administrative work and spend more time with your clients and less on billing.
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READ NEXT: What Are ICD and CPT Codes—and Why Are They Important?
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