R07.9 – Chest pain, unspecified

Billable/ Specific Code:

R07.9 ICD-10 code for unspecified chest pain is a billable/specific ICD-10-CM code that can be used to indicate a diagnosis for reimbursement purposes.

Approximate Synonyms:

• Chest pain
• Chest pain on exertion
• Chest pain, localized
• Exertional chest pain
• Localized chest pain

Clinical Information

• Chest pain.
• Having a pain in your chest can be scary. It does not always mean that you are having a heart attack. There can be many other causes, including
  • heart problems, such as angina
  • panic attacks
  • digestive problems, such as heartburn or esophagus disorders
  • sore muscles
  • lung diseases, such as pneumonia, pleurisy, or pulmonary embolism
  • costochondritis – an inflammation of joints in your chest

  some of these problems can also be serious. Get immediate medical care if you have chest pain that does not go away, crushing pain or pressure in the chest, or chest pain along with nausea, sweating, dizziness or shortness of breath. Treatment depends on the cause of the pain.

• Pain in the chest.
• Pressure, burning, or numbness in the chest.
• Sensation of unpleasant feeling indicating potential or actual damage to some body structure felt in the chest.

• Cardiology
• Internal Medicine

ICD-10: A Brief Synopsis

For disease reporting, the US utilizes its own national variant of ICD-10 called the ICD-10 Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM). A procedural classification called ICD-10 Procedure Coding System (ICD-10-PCS) has also been developed for capturing inpatient procedures. The ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS were developed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). There are over 70,000 ICD-10-PCS procedure codes and over 69,000 ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes, compared to about 3,800 procedure codes and roughly 14,000 diagnosis codes found in the previous ICD-9-CM.

The expansion of healthcare delivery systems and changes in global health trends prompted a need for codes with improved clinical accuracy and specificity. The alphanumeric coding in ICD-10 is an improvement from ICD-9 which had a limited number of codes and a restrictive structure. Early concerns in the implementation of ICD-10 included the cost and the availability of resources for training healthcare workers and professional coders.

There was much controversy when the transition from the ICD-9-CM to the ICD-10-CM was first announced in the US. Many providers were concerned about the vast number of codes being added, the complexity of the new coding system, and the costs associated with the transition. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) weighed these concerns against the benefits of having more accurate data collection, clearer documentation of diagnoses and procedures, and more accurate claims processing. CMS decided the financial and public health cost associated with continuing to use the ICD-9-CM was too high and mandated the switch to ICD-10-CM.