The ICD-10-CM Index to Diseases and Injuries is organized in which manner?

The ICD-10-CM Index to Diseases and Injuries is organized primarily by main terms, subterms, and qualifiers. Each main term represents a disease or injury and serves as a primary diagnostic point. Under these main terms, subterms provide additional details, such as specific conditions or variations of the main diagnostic category. Qualifiers further refine the diagnosis by indicating specifics such as the nature, location, or severity. This hierarchical structure allows coders to systematically trace from a broad diagnosis to a more granular and specific code, ensuring accuracy in coding for conditions.

The other answer choices reflect different organizational features or components not directly describing the structure of the ICD-10-CM Index. For instance, categories and subcategories are more characteristic of how codes are grouped in the Tabular List rather than the Index. General equivalence mappings (GEMs) pertain to transitional coding resources between different coding systems, while sections and tables represent layout aspects of the coding manual but do not explain the intuitive search structure seen in the Index. This elucidation of organization is essential for understanding how to navigate and effectively use the ICD-10-CM coding system.