On October 1,st 2014, the United States will finally move to the 10th revision of the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems more commonly called ICD-10 (I10). All U.S. Healthcare providers currently use ICD-9 codes now whereas the rest of the world adopted ICD-10 back in the 1990s. In order to move to a 21st century code for diseases, U.S. healthcare provider organizations started moving towards I10 over the last couple of years, but this year is when most if not all of the organizations have initiated their ICD-10 planning and execution roadmaps.
The transition to I10 is mandated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) who state that:
“ICD-10-CM/PCS (International Classification of Diseases, 10th Edition, Clinical Modification /Procedure Coding System) consists of two parts:
1. ICD-10-CM for diagnosis coding
2. ICD-10-PCS for inpatient procedure coding
ICD-10-CM is for use in all U.S. health care settings. Diagnosis coding under ICD-10-CM uses 3 to 7 digits instead of the 3 to 5 digits used with ICD-9-CM, but the format of the code sets is similar. ICD-10-PCS is for use in U.S. inpatient hospital settings only. ICD-10PCS uses 7 alphanumeric digits instead of the 3 or 4 numeric digits used under ICD-9-CM procedure coding. Coding under ICD-10-PCS is much more specific and substantially different from ICD-9-CM procedure coding.
The transition to ICD-10 is occurring because ICD-9 produces limited data about patients’ medical conditions and hospital inpatient procedures. ICD-9 is 30 years old, has outdated terms, and is inconsistent with current medical practice. Also, the structure of ICD-9 limits the number of new codes that can be created, and many ICD-9 categories are full.”
Most healthcare organizations at this stage have started or have completed their ICD-10 assessments and have started working on their execution plans for Clinical and then Billing Go Live date of October 1st, 2014.
Healthcare Interoperability 