Shifting to ICD-10

ICD-10 will be replacing ICD-9 as the medical classification set forth by the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD), a medical classification list by the World Health Organization (WHO). ICD-10 includes codes for diseases, signs and symptoms, abnormal findings, complaints, social circumstances, and external causes of injury or diseases.

What Does This Mean?

ICD-10 is a new change, but stay informed about what it means.

Here are some key facts to know about ICD-10 compliance:

• Transition to ICD-10 is required for everyone covered by the Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act (HIPAA), and this is explained in depth on cms.gov.

• The ICD-10 change does not affect CPT coding for outpatient procedures and physician services.

• The deadline for ICD-10 compliance is set for October 1, 2015 to replace ICD-9, as established by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on August 4, 2014.

• ICD-9 will continue to be required until September 30, 2015.

                                   Response to the Change and More Info.

In response to the new compliance date, American Medical Association (AMA) president elect Steven J. Stack stated,“While the AMA appreciates that physicians have additional time to comply with ICD-10, we continue to have fundamental concerns about ICD-10 and its implementation, which will not be resolved by the extra time.”

Testing for ICD-10 will take place by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) during November 2014 and March and June 2015. Further end-to-end testing will also take place on a rolling basis. Moving to ICD-10 is most likely going to affect all physicians.

Due to increased number of codes, change in number of characters per code and increased code specificity, the transition to ICD-10 will require adequate planning and training.

For even more information, see this article on AMA website.