Preparing for ICD-10 While In an ICD-9 World  

Category: ICD-10

Unless you are living under a rock or plan on retiring, you are probably aware of the United States adopting ICD-10 and are beginning to worry about what this means for you and your organization. Although ICD-10 is not mandated to be implemented until October 1, 2014, the impact on physician office coding, billing, and collections will be profound and requires immediate attention. Any area that depends on ICD-9-CM codes (coding, billing, denials, pre-certification and pre-authorization, decision support, etc...) will be required to switch to the ICD-10-CM diagnosis coding system.

According to an article published in Healthcare IT News, "it is estimated that all hospitals and doctors' offices presently are under billing through under coding between 10% and 45% of all gross billings." The need for increased documentation specificity for correct code assignment in ICD-10 is exp...