F50.22

HCC Category Mapping

What This Code Means

A moderate eating disorder characterized by repeated cycles of eating large amounts of food followed by compensatory behaviors like vomiting or excessive exercise.

Coding Tips

• •Ensure documentation supports moderate severity level with frequency and impact on functioning
• •Review for any remission status that would require a different code

Clinical Significance

Bulimia nervosa involves recurrent episodes of binge eating followed by inappropriate compensatory behaviors (self-induced vomiting, laxative/diuretic misuse, fasting, excessive exercise) in a patient at normal or above-normal weight. Moderate bulimia (4-7 compensatory episodes per week) indicates escalating purging behavior with increasing medical risk. Unlike anorexia nervosa, patients with bulimia are not significantly underweight, which can make the condition less visually apparent.

Documentation Requirements

• ✓Recurrent episodes of binge eating (consuming objectively large amounts of food with sense of loss of control)
• ✓Recurrent inappropriate compensatory behaviors to prevent weight gain (4-7 episodes per week)
• ✓Binge eating and compensatory behaviors occur at least once per week for three months
• ✓Self-evaluation unduly influenced by body shape and weight
• ✓Disturbance does not occur exclusively during episodes of anorexia nervosa (patient is NOT significantly underweight)

Commonly Confused Codes