ICD-10 transition appears to be going smoothly for most providers

By Steven Andrews 

It’s been more than two weeks since ICD-10 became the official code set and the sky hasn’t fallen. Despite claims that from the AMA and other physician groups that ICD-10 was a “looming disaster” that could devastate the industry, the transition has mostly been notable for how smoothly it’s gone. 

In fact, some facilities are still operating at ICD-9-CM coding levels despite the change, according to a recent story in HealthLeaders Media. 

"Systems are functioning well, and with a little extra effort, coding days are still at pre-ICD-10 levels,” said John Showalter, MD, chief health information officer of the University of Mississippi Medical Center. “We have submitted a few claims where the remittance has already come back, and all of our major payers have accepted a claim submission.” 

Showalter credits his facility’s success to extensive preparations taken in anticipation of implementation, including multiple rounds of testing with state Medicaid systems and translating crosswalks. His experience adds credence to the idea that the repeated calls for delays by Congress and physician groups did more to hurt industry preparation than help.  

Of course, for such a massive change, it surely hasn’t been completely seamless. I’ve heard from providers in different MAC jurisdictions that a handful of LCDs did not contain all the properly translated ICD-10-CM codes, leading to denials. I’ve also heard of some MACs putting holds on claims for manual review.

How has the ICD-10 transition affected your facility? Email ACDIS Editor Katy Rushlau at krushlau@acdis.org.

Editor's Note: This article originally published in the eNewsletter APC Insider.