ICD-10 Code T25.732S: Corrosion of third degree of left toe(s)
ICD-10 Code T25.732S is a billable code for corrosion of third degree of left to...
Last Updated: September 2, 2026
Key takeaways
S62.396B is the billable ICD-10 code for other fracture of the fifth metacarpal bone, right hand, initial encounter for open fracture.
The 7th character ‘B’ carries both the open wound and the initial encounter, so the parent code S62.396 rejects on its own.
‘Other’ is a residual category, so a note that names the base, shaft, or neck belongs in a different S62.3 series.
The code has been in effect since October 1, 2015, and the left-hand equivalent is S62.397B.
Practice management software like Pabau keeps the note, the invoice, and the claim status in one patient record.
ICD-10 code S62.396B is the billable code for other fracture of the fifth metacarpal bone, right hand, initial encounter for open fracture. One detail decides most of the work here.
In ICD-10-CM, “other” is a residual category. It applies only when the record does not place the break at the base, shaft, or neck. Get that judgment wrong and the claim either denies or pays on a code the chart does not support. Auditors look for exactly that.
The sections below work through the descriptor, the 7th character, the documentation a payer expects, and the errors that send this code back.
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S62.396B is billable, S62.396 is not
S62.396B is a billable ICD-10-CM diagnosis code. Its full descriptor is other fracture of fifth metacarpal bone, right hand, initial encounter for open fracture. It has been in effect since October 1, 2015, when ICD-10-CM replaced ICD-9-CM in the US. This is not a new or recently added code.
The parent code S62.396 is not billable, and a claim carrying it alone will reject. Payers need the 7th character to know which encounter they are paying for. With that character in place, the code is valid on both the CMS-1500 and the UB-04.
The 7th character ‘B’ marks an open fracture at the first visit
‘B’ means initial encounter for open fracture. The character does two jobs at once. It places the visit at the start of active treatment, and it records that the skin was broken. Fracture codes in the S62 category are invalid without it.
The open and closed distinction only exists on the initial encounter. Once the patient returns, the character describes healing instead, which is why D, G, K and P describe healing rather than the wound.
The CMS ICD-10-CM coding guidelines set out the full character set for each fracture category.
Where the fifth metacarpal breaks decides the code series
The fifth metacarpal connects the little finger to the wrist, and it breaks more often than any other bone in the hand. A closed-fist impact drives most of those injuries.
ICD-10-CM splits the S62.3 category by site first, then by displacement. Base, shaft and neck each get their own pair of series. S62.39- picks up what is left over, which is a documented fifth metacarpal fracture the record does not place at any of those three sites.
The grid below shows the whole category on one screen.
- Base: S62.31- when displaced, S62.34- when not
- Shaft: S62.32- when displaced, S62.35- when not
- Neck: S62.33- when displaced, S62.36- when not
- Other: S62.39-, which is where S62.396B sits for the right hand, open, initial encounter
- Site not documented: S62.30- for an unspecified fracture, which is not the same as ‘other’
A “boxer fracture” is a neck fracture in clinical shorthand, so it belongs in S62.33- or S62.36-. Read the operative note or the radiology report for the site before you pick a series. That one habit prevents the most expensive error on this family of codes.
Open or closed changes the code and the claim
An open fracture means a wound communicates with the fracture site, or the bone has broken through the skin. A closed fracture leaves the skin intact. For S62.396B, the record has to describe that wound at the initial encounter, in the clinician’s own words.
If the note documents a closed fracture, the code is S62.396A. Swapping one for the other misstates the injury, and it undercuts the medical necessity of irrigation, debridement or open reduction. Laterality works the same way, with S62.397A and S62.397B covering the left hand.
Trace S62.396B back up the ICD-10 hierarchy
Each level of the hierarchy adds one piece of detail. Reading it downward is the fastest way to confirm you are in the right part of the tabular list.
The CDC/NCHS ICD-10-CM web tool confirms placement against the official tabular list. Our ICD-10-CM codes hub covers the same 7th character logic across other injury categories.
- S00-T88: Injury, poisoning and certain other consequences of external causes
- S60-S69: Injuries to the wrist, hand and fingers
- S62: Fracture at wrist and hand level
- S62.3: Fracture of other and unspecified metacarpal bone
- S62.39: Other fracture of other metacarpal bone
- S62.396: Other fracture of fifth metacarpal bone, right hand (not billable)
- S62.396B: Other fracture of fifth metacarpal bone, right hand, initial encounter for open fracture (billable)
The seven billable codes under S62.396
One parent, seven children, and only one of them fits any given visit. Check this list before a follow-up claim goes out, because most repeat encounters need a character the first claim never used.
How an S62.396B claim moves from the exam room to the payer
The code is only one step in a short chain, and the steps around it are where claims usually stall. Here is the path a single open fifth metacarpal fracture takes.
- The clinician documents the side, the bone, the fracture site and the wound.
- Coding reads the note and picks the S62.3 series by site, then adds the digit for bone and side.
- The 7th character goes on last, from the encounter type and the wound status.
- Charge capture pairs the diagnosis with the procedure performed, and the claim leaves on a CMS-1500.
- The payer checks that pairing against its own edits, and a pairing it cannot reconcile comes back as a denial.
Two steps break far more often than the rest. Step one produces “metacarpal fracture” with no side and no site, which forces a query. Step three inherits the character from the last visit, which turns a follow-up into a second initial encounter and draws a duplicate denial.
The note needs five details to support S62.396B
Five details have to appear in the treating clinician’s own documentation, and a coder cannot infer any of them from the procedure billed.
A clean claim on this code depends on all five being present before submission.
- Laterality: the record states “right hand”. A “hand fracture” with no side does not support S62.396B.
- Bone: the fifth metacarpal is named. “Metacarpal fracture” alone supports only an unspecified code.
- Fracture site: the note rules out the base, shaft and neck, or describes a site that none of them covers.
- Open wound: the note describes a wound reaching the fracture, or bone through the skin. Wound measurements and operative notes both serve.
- Encounter type: the note marks this as the first encounter for active treatment of this injury.
Pro Tip
Run a five-field check before the claim goes out: side, bone, fracture site, wound status, and encounter type. If one field is missing from the note, query the treating clinician instead of coding around it. A query before submission costs a fraction of the time a denial does after.
Index terms that point to S62.396B
Charts rarely use the tabular wording. These are the phrasings that lead to S62.396B in the ICD-10-CM alphabetic index, and each one still has to be checked against the descriptor.
- Open fracture of fifth metacarpal bone, right hand, initial encounter
- Other fracture of right fifth metacarpal bone, initial encounter for open fracture
- Fifth metacarpal fracture, open, right, initial encounter
- Open little-finger metacarpal fracture, right hand, first visit
- Compound fracture of the right fifth metacarpal, which is older wording for an open fracture
Two phrases look close and land elsewhere. “Boxer fracture” describes the neck, and “shaft” or “mid-metacarpal” sends the claim to S62.32- or S62.35- instead.
The CPT codes that travel with S62.396B
An open fracture almost always brings a procedure with it, so this diagnosis rarely appears alone on a claim. The codes below are the ones most often billed alongside it. Confirm the operative note supports whichever you choose.
Surgical debridement is coded by the deepest tissue removed, across the 11042 to 11047 range. Cleaning an open fracture down to bone therefore lands on 11044, with +11047 for each additional 20 sq cm.
Reimbursement varies by payer and locality, so check the local coverage policy before billing debridement alongside fracture care.
The ICD-9 crosswalk is for audits, not for claims
S62.396B maps back to the ICD-9-CM 815 category, which handled metacarpal fractures with far less detail.
ICD-9 never isolated the fifth metacarpal, and it never recorded which hand. It also had no residual “other fracture” entry for the metacarpals, so the shaft codes sit closest.
Use these for retrospective chart review and data migration only. An ICD-9 code on a current claim will reject, because payers have run on ICD-10-CM since 2015.
Five errors that get S62.396B denied
Most trouble on this code comes from five places, and each one is visible in the note before the claim goes out.
- Submitting the parent code. S62.396 without a 7th character is not valid, and the claim rejects. Append A, B, D, G, K, P or S every time.
- Defaulting to ‘A’. S62.396A is the closed-fracture character. Choosing it while the note describes an open wound understates the injury and invites an audit finding.
- Missing laterality. S62.396B is the right hand only. A left-hand fracture is S62.397B, and the two are easy to transpose.
- Trusting “boxer fracture”. That phrase points at the neck, which is S62.33- or S62.36-. A documented shaft fracture belongs in S62.32- or S62.35-.
- Reusing ‘B’ on follow-ups. Return visits during active treatment take D, G, K or P. A third post-operative visit coded ‘B’ is wrong on its face.
Track denial reasons by code and the pattern shows itself quickly. When two of these five account for most of your rejections on hand injuries, the fix belongs at the point of care.
A documentation prompt in the note beats a second review after the money has already been delayed.
How Pabau keeps injury-code claims moving
In most practices the note lives in one system and the claim in another. A coder reads an exported summary and types a code into a billing tool.
Weeks later the denial arrives, and the side or the wound was never written down. By then the patient has been discharged and the clinician has moved on.
Practice management software like Pabau keeps both in the same place. The clinical note, the invoice and the claim all sit against the same appointment.
Your coder works from the note itself, not from an export. Claims go out electronically through Claim.MD for US practices, and each claim’s status comes back into that same record.
That shortens the loop on a code like S62.396B. When a payer rejects the claim, the status and the note behind it open side by side. The query then reaches the right clinician the same day.
Our claims management software handles submission and status tracking, while the coding judgment stays with your team.
Keep the note, the invoice and the claim together
Pabau files every claim against the appointment that produced it, submits electronically, and tracks each claim’s status in the patient record. Your coders work from the note itself.
Conclusion
S62.396B is a narrow code doing a precise job. It says right hand, fifth metacarpal, open at the first visit, and a fracture the record does not place at the base, shaft or neck. When one of those elements is missing from the chart, a query is the answer, not a best guess.
The habit worth building is small. Read the site of the fracture before you reach for a series, then read the wound description before you choose the 7th character. Those two reads prevent most denials across the whole S62.3 family, not just this code.
That check is harder than it needs to be when the note and the claim live in separate systems. Book a demo to see how Pabau keeps hand-injury documentation and claim status in one patient record.
Continue your research
Is the note describing the metacarpal neck instead? S62.337B covers a displaced neck fracture of the fifth metacarpal, which is where most boxer fracture wording belongs.
Coding an open fracture at the base of the bone? S62.349B handles a nondisplaced metacarpal base fracture at the initial encounter.
Billing a late effect of the same injury? S62.367S is the sequela code for a fifth metacarpal fracture, used once active treatment has ended.
Seeing the same rejections month after month? Denial management in healthcare sets out the tracking that shows which errors keep repeating.
Submitting US claims electronically? Claim.MD clearinghouse explains how claims and remittances move between a practice and its payers.
Frequently asked questions
What does ICD-10 code S62.396B mean?
It means other fracture of the fifth metacarpal bone, right hand, initial encounter for open fracture. The code is billable, while the parent code S62.396 is not.
When did ICD-10-CM S62.396B become effective?
October 1, 2015, the day ICD-10-CM took effect in the US. It is not a new code, so claims from FY2016 onward can carry it.
Does S62.396B need an external cause code?
ICD-10-CM does not require one, but many payers, state mandates and trauma registries expect it. Add the Chapter 20 code for how the injury happened whenever your payer asks for it.
Should the open wound be coded separately from S62.396B?
No. The open fracture code already accounts for the wound at that site, so adding an S61- wound code reports the same injury twice. Code a wound separately only when it sits at a different site.
Is a compound fracture the same as an open fracture?
Yes. Compound is the older clinical term for a fracture that communicates with a wound. A note using it supports the B 7th character, as long as the wound itself is described.
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