The HHS (The Department of Health and Human services) has set a new date for implementing the International Classification of Disease tenth revision (ICD-10). The final date of implementation has been postponed to October 1st 2014. This is a one year delay from the earlier date October 1st 2013. HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced this final date and stated that “by delaying the compliance date of ICD-10 from October 1, 2013, to October 1, 2014, we are allowing more time for covered entities to prepare for the transition to ICD-10 and to conduct thorough testing.” The ICD-10 is expected to provide healthcare professionals more convenience in tracking diagnoses and procedures.
The ICD-10 was created in early 1992 as a successor to the currently prevailing ICD-9 system. ICD-10 will be split into two systems: ICD-10-CM (clinical modification) for diagnostic coding and ICD-10-PCS (procedure coding system) for inpatient hospital procedure coding. ICD-9 includes 17000 codes comprising 13,000 diagnosis codes and 4000 procedure codes. In ICD-10 there are 140,694 codes of which 68105 are diagnosis codes and 72589 are procedure codes.
The extra time allowed for preparation will enable covered entities to avoid costly obstacles that are otherwise likely to emerge during production. The ICD-10 codes enable capture of additional data that will facilitate the exchange of US healthcare information with nations that have already implemented ICD-10. It is mandatory that all entities covered by the HIPAA use the new ICD-10 codes.
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.