Healthcare providers and medical coders and billers would surely be familiar with the mandate by the HHS (the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) to substitute the ICD-9-CM code sets with the ICD-10 ones starting October 1st 2013. This is a challenging transition and one that cannot be overlooked in medical coding and billing procedures.
More about ICD-10
The tenth amendment of the ICD (International Classification of Diseases) was sanctioned by the 43rd World Health Assembly in 1990. The ICD is the global diagnostic classification standard for general epidemiological, clinical and a lot of health management uses. WHO (World Health Organization) member states adopted the amendments in 1994. The categorization is the most recent in a sequence that originated in the 1850s. In contrast to ICD-9-CM which has only over 17, 000 codes, the ICD-10 code set has over 141, 000 codes and contains a number of new procedures and diagnoses. ICD-10 contains in:
Volume 1
- Tabular lists that include codes and titles for cause-of-death (Volume 1)
- Exclusion and inclusion terms for cause-of-death titles
Volume 2
- Guidelines, descriptions and coding resources
Volume 3
- An alphabetical index for table of drugs and chemicals, external causes of injury, and diseases and nature of injury
Choose an Up-to-date and Capable Company to Outsource To
You may read online about a lot of medical coding companies that you can possibly outsource to. However, it would be a smart idea to prefer a company that has the resources to make the changeover to ICD-10 by the deadline set by the HHS. This is in addition to the other requisites of a medical billing and coding company such as AAPC certification, HIPAA compliance, cost-effective solutions, superior quality assurance, ensured faster reimbursement and fewer denials, adherence to specified turnaround, and preferably a free trial option.
Rajeev Rajagopal, the President of OSI, has a wealth of experience as a healthcare business consultant in the United States. He has a keen understanding of current medical billing and coding standards.