In the world of health and medicine doctors treat patients for all kinds of different illnesses and injuries daily. Doctors see many different patients with many different health needs and this makes documenting patient treatment and interactions quite a difficult task. In response to these difficulties, a system of medical codes, known as International Classification of Diseases (ICD), were developed to help quickly indicate to doctors and health care workers all patient diagnoses. The set of codes currently used in the medical world, ICD-9 or the 9th edition codes, have been in use since 1979 and in 2014 it was announced that this code set would be replaced in 2015 by ICD-10 codes.
Why Switch to ICD-10?
When the ICD-9 code set was initially created it was intended to be used for disease prevention purposes. However, in the United States the codes have been used for insurance billing and reimbursement purposes. Because the codes were not designed for billing purposes the codes are often insufficient when trying to document all medical issues and this is one reason why ICD-10 is being introduced. In the past 25 years the health and medicine industry has seen a great amount of change as new diseases have surfaced, new treatment methods have been developed, and many new medical devices are used in the treatment of patients. In an attempt to make the ICD-9 codes work for our current health care system many modifications have been made to the code set. These modifications, however, have made the set more confusing and difficult to work with and as a result, it was decided that the new ICD-10 code set would be implemented by October 1, 2015.
Changes With ICD-10 Codes
The new ICD-10 codes that will be used vary quite a bit from the currently used ICD-9 codes. Some of the notable changes include:
- The new code set has been expanded from 5 digits to 7 digits allowing for more accurate diagnosis coding.
- All digits in ICD-10 codes can be either numbers or letters. With ICD-9 codes only the first digit could be either numbers or letters.
- There are approximately 68,000 codes for the ICD-10 set compared to 13,000 for the ICD-9 set. This great increase in the amount of codes demonstrates just how inadequate the current set of codes is.
- The new codes offer much more specific diagnoses compared to the ICD-9 codes. For example, with ICD-10 codes particular sides of the body (left or right) can be detailed making the codes more accurate and useful.
- The new code set is much more flexible than the previous set and can be easily updated as health and medicine continue to change.
- Outdated terminology in the current code set has been updated and made consistent throughout the new ICD-10 code set.
- Some of the new codes are a combination of symptoms and treatments. By doing this, less codes are needed to fully describe a medical situation.
Assistance With New Codes
With the implementation of a new code set comes a significant learning curve that can be difficult to overcome. A major concern with the switch to ICD-10 codes is the fact that there is no correlation or mapping between the new ICD-10 codes and the older ICD-9 codes. A small number of procedures and diagnoses may have codes similar to their ICD-9 codes, but most codes will be completely different. Understanding all of these code changes is crucial to ensuring that doctors will earn their full reimbursements. In order to make sure that your practice is earning all of the money that you are entitled to consult the expert coders at HCCCoders.com. Our experts have years of experience in the coding industry and have already received thorough training on ICD-10 coding. Visit our site today to get professional assistance with all of your coding needs.