News: ICD-10-CM/PCS developments
June 20, 2013
CDI Strategies - Volume 7, Issue 14
Nearly 30% of respondents to a recent ACDIS poll indicated that “only God or the government can tell” whether ICD-10-CM/PCS implementation date will hold fast to its current October 1, 2014 perch, with somewhat good reason.
In April, U.S. Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) introduced a bill titled “Cutting Costly Codes Act of 2013,” aimed at “prohibiting the replacement of ICD-9 with ICD-10.” The bill brought quick response from the healthcare community as more than 10 corporations and associations from AHIMA to 3M wrote in condemnation of the proposal on May 17.
“Any delays in adoption of ICD-10 in the U.S. will make it difficult to track new and emerging public health threats. The transition to ICD-10 is time-sensitive because of the urgent need to keep up with tracking, identifying, and analyzing new medical services and treatments available to patients. Continued reliance on the increasingly outdated ICD-9 coding system is not an option,” the letter states.
Furthermore, the AMA only just relented from its ongoing to push to leapfrog over ICD-10 to ICD-11, according to a June 2013, report from its board of trustees (http://tinyurl.com/l2tq5hs).
That said, more than 60% of poll respondents said they do believe the October 2014 implementation date will remain firm. In fact, CMS representatives said as much during their April 18, 2013 National Provider Call where a review of the transition efforts to date reveled CMS’ onward march toward implementation.
CMS is releasing a flurry of ICD-10 related items, of late including:
- ‘End-to-end’ testing of the ICD-10 transaction standards
- New ICD-10-PCS files including the updated “Official ICD-10-PCS Coding Guidelines” and the 2014 ICD-10-PCS code tables and index, which added four procedure codes created to capture new technologies
- The revised “General Equivalence Mappings Frequently Asked Questions” Booklet (ICN 901743), now available in downloadable format.
- The revised “ICD-10-CM Classification Enhancements” Fact Sheet, download which includes ICD-10-CM/PCS compliance date; benefits of ICD-10-CM; similarities and differences between International Classification of Diseases, 9th Edition, Clinical Modification and ICD-10-CM; new features in ICD-10-CM; additional changes in ICD-10-CM; and use of external cause and unspecified codes in ICD-10-CM.
In its ICD-10-CM/PCS transition planning and preparation checklist—which includes an implementation timeline—AHIMA states that hospitals should already be assessing documentation quality and taking steps to improve it. This monitoring and improvement should continue throughout—and even after—the implementation.
“Start the metamorphosis of your query forms now so physicians can adjust and get used to the level of detail,” Cheryl Robbins, RHIT, CCS, director of remote coding operations for Precyse in Dallas, Texas, told JustCoding.com.
“The idea with queries is that physicians improve their documentation over time and that the query serves an educational purpose as well,” says Gloryanne Bryant, RHIA, CCS, CDIP, CCDS, HIM professional in Fremont, Calif.
ACDIS members can read a recap of the First Quarter 2013 Coding Clinic for ICD-9-CM and a breakdown of it pertains to clarifying procedures and diagnoses in ICD-10 on our CDI Journal archive page, here: http://www.hcpro.com/acdis/details.cfm?topic=WS_ACD_JNL&content_id=292863