ICD-10 & Coding

As the industry anxiously and eagerly awaits the ICD-10 deadline, let's take a look at some of the aspects providers are most concerned about now.

ICD-10 has been a long time coming and, now that the deadline is closing in quickly, a steady stream of vendors are unveiling new products to help hospitals with the transition.

While providers and physicians may be scrambling to get ready for ICD-10, workers' compensation practitioners are not required to switch to the new codes, according to the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange, an advisor to the Department of Health and Human Services.

According to the agency, 29,286 test claims were received and 25,646 test claims were accepted, marking an 87 percent acceptance rate.

William Rogers, MD, director of the Physicians Regulatory Issues Team at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, will act as ICD-10 ombudsman to the federal agency, acting CMS administrator Andy Slavitt announced Thursday.

Those who were ready before last year's postponement are expecting it to through as planned - and hope there is no further delay.

A new checklist by the American Hospital Association is aimed at ensuring hospitals, and more urgently, physicians, are ready for a successful transition to ICD-10 on October 1.

Experts say problems seen in September in testing ICD-10 codes could turn into disasters when the new diagnostic code set goes live on October 1.

There are steps that medical practices can take to preserve medical coder productivity even in the short time we have before Oct. 1

As part of CMS's ICD-10 transition outreach, the agency will appoint an ombudsman to help handle physician and provider issues as they arise.