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The ICD (International Classification of Diseases) is an international standard for classification of morbidity and mortality information and for the indexing of hospital records published by the World Health Organisation. ICD-9 and ICD-10 are now widely uti — l — ised in Australia, including by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Family Services for national health statistics and by the Commonwealth Department of Veterans' Affairs for disability and MRCA claims processing.
At this stage, there is no requirement that a doctor should identify the appropriate ICD code(s) for use in processing a claim under the SRCA. Please note, however, that ICD codes should be obtained wherever this is convenient because:
- the use of ICD co — des will assist a precise identification of an injury or disease, and
- DVA already uses ICD codes in VEA and MRCA processing and plans to move to use of ICD codes at a later stage and the early collection of this data will assist the change process in th — e future.