Just in case you forget why we're doing all this, Robert Tagalicod, Director, Office of E-Health Standards and Services, summarizes how important ICD-10 is to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services:
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ICD-10 Advances Health Care and the Implementation of eHealth Initiatives
- ICD-10 is essential to health care reform and the CMS eHealth initiative, and is part of the overall goal - the triple aim to achieve better care, better access and better health while lowering costs.
- eHealth programs such as ICD-10, Administrative Simplification, the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record Incentive Programs, and quality reporting programs like the Physician Quality Reporting Systemare all aimed at accomplishing this goal.
- Together, these eHealth programs will provide greater interoperability, easier data sharing, better quality measurement, improved clinical outcomes, and lower costs.
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ICD-10 Captures Advances in Medicine and Medical Technology
- ICD - 10 captures new procedures that lead to innovative health care and medical breakthroughs.
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ICD-10 Improves Data for Quality Reporting
- Many quality measures rely on ICD diagnosis codes. ICD-10 provides better data for quality reporting and outcomes measurement.
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ICD-10 Improves Public Health Research, Reporting, and Surveillance
- ICD-10 is more effective at capturing public health diseases due to its greater specificity. Federal, state, and local officials, including researchers, will use ICD-10 diagnosis codes for public health research, reporting and surveillance.