With the switchover to ICD-10 just nine months away, many healthcare groups are rushing to be ready
for go-live.
ICD-10 is the biggest change in standard healthcare coding systems for the year 2014. ICD-10 will
have a huge impact on every system, process and operation that uses a diagnosis code. As important
details about implementation are available, providers and healthcare specialist should think about
how to deal with ICD-10, which will significantly grow and change the familiar codes payers and
providers have used for years.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have plans to transition all diagnosis codes from the
ICD-9 system to the ICD-10 system in 2014. That transition applies to all providers and the date is
absolute, with no exceptions for a grace period.
Imagine if you have to transfer thousands of ICD-9 CM codes and descriptions to the appropriate ICD
-10 CM versions manually. It would be time consuming and exertion without using an electronic coding
system.
Adopted ICD-10 to classify diseases and related health problems because of the benefits it provides
such as:
Reimbursement – It would enhance accurate coding and payment for services
rendered.
Quality – ICD-10 would improve quality of care and documentation.
Particular – ICD-10 is specific enough to identify diagnoses and procedures precisely.
According to World Health Organization, the ICD helps with the storage and retrieval of diagnostic
information and national mortality and morbidity statistics.
The ICD-10-CM revision has more than 68,000 diagnostic codes, compared to the 13,000 found in
ICD-9-CM. The revision also includes twice as many categories, and it introduces alphanumeric
category classifications for the first time.
According to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services the new deadline for ICD-10 is October 1,
2014.