The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the American Medical Association (AMA) have announced efforts to continue to help physicians and other healthcare providers prepare for the switch from International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems ninth revision (ICD-9) to the tenth revision (ICD-10) ahead of the October 1, 2015, deadline. In response to requests from the provider community, CMS said it is releasing additional guidance that will allow for flexibility in the claims auditing and quality reporting process as the medical community gains experience using the new ICD-10 code set.
CMS and AMA will educate providers in parallel through webinars, on-site training, educational articles, and national provider calls to help physicians and other healthcare providers learn about the updated codes and prepare for the transition.
CMS’ free help includes the “Road to 10” aimed specifically at smaller physician practices with primers for clinical documentation, clinical scenarios, and other specialty-specific resources to help with implementation. CMS has also released provider training videos that offer helpful ICD-10 implementation tips.
Additionally, Modern Healthcare reported that CMS has made a concession in the transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 in that for one year past the October 1, 2015, deadline, it will reimburse for wrongly coded claims as long as the erroneous code is in the same broad family as the correct one.
