Skip to main content

S61.227A vs S61.227S

S61.227A (Laceration with foreign body of left little finger without damage to nail, initial encounter) compared with S61.227S (Laceration with foreign body of left little finger without damage to nail, sequela), from the official CMS tabular data. S61.227A and S61.227S code the same injury at a different phase of treatment.

Can these codes be reported together?

Same injury, other encounter phase. S61.227A and S61.227S code the same injury at a different phase of treatment, set by the 7th character.

The 7th character records the type of care given at the encounter being coded (ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines, Section I.C.19.a), so one encounter takes one of these, not both.

Side by side

S61.227ALaceration with foreign body of left little finger without damage to nail, initial encounterS61.227SLaceration with foreign body of left little finger without damage to nail, sequela
Billing statusBillableBillable
ClassificationS00-T88 — Injury, Poisoning and Certain Other Consequences of External Causes (S00-T88)S00-T88 — Injury, Poisoning and Certain Other Consequences of External Causes (S00-T88)
DefinitionLaceration with foreign body of left little finger without damage to nail, initial encounter is a billable ICD-10-CM diagnosis code (S61.227A).Laceration with foreign body of left little finger without damage to nail, sequela is a billable ICD-10-CM diagnosis code (S61.227S).
7th characterThe appropriate 7th character is to be added to each code from category S61The appropriate 7th character is to be added to each code from category S61

Derived from the official CMS ICD-10-CM tabular data (FY2026). Not billing advice; verify sequencing rules for the encounter. All data sources