Coding Gap? Creation Of New ICD-9 Codes May End Before ICD-10 Begins
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
Assignment of new insurance claim codes is likely to freeze temporarily within the next two to three years, speakers said April 16 at the annual ICD-10 summit organized by the American Health Information Management Association in Washington, D.C
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Inpatient Payment System Comments In Brief
Transition to ICD-10 likely to freeze new ICD-9 codes: AdvaMed says it supports the CMS proposal for a limited freeze on code updates to both ICD-9 (International Classification of Diseases, ninth edition) and ICD-10 code sets during a transition period that runs from Oct. 1, 2011, to Oct. 1, 2013, as long as it includes an exception for adding codes for new technologies (1"The Gray Sheet" April 20, 2009). "AdvaMed, however, would not like to see the transition period used as a reason for tightening up the criteria for getting new codes," the trade group writes in June 18 comments on the agency's Inpatient Prospective Payment System proposal released in April
Inpatient Payment System Comments In Brief
Transition to ICD-10 likely to freeze new ICD-9 codes: AdvaMed says it supports the CMS proposal for a limited freeze on code updates to both ICD-9 (International Classification of Diseases, ninth edition) and ICD-10 code sets during a transition period that runs from Oct. 1, 2011, to Oct. 1, 2013, as long as it includes an exception for adding codes for new technologies (1"The Gray Sheet" April 20, 2009). "AdvaMed, however, would not like to see the transition period used as a reason for tightening up the criteria for getting new codes," the trade group writes in June 18 comments on the agency's Inpatient Prospective Payment System proposal released in April
ICD-10 date delay
The expansive ICD-10 coding system will be adopted in the U.S. for health care billing on Oct. 1, 2013, under a final rule released by the Department of Health and Human Services Jan. 15. The regulation delays the transition from ICD-9-CM to ICD-10 by two years from what HHS had proposed in a draft rule issued in August (1"The Gray Sheet" Aug. 25, 2008, p. 12). Device makers and some hospital groups had pushed for the 2011 adoption date for what will be an almost ten-fold increase in the number of reimbursement codes. They and CMS point out that available codes under the current system are running out, which hinders payers' ability to appropriately pay for and monitor new medical procedures and technologies. But arguments from private insurers and state Medicaid programs won out. They warned that the 2011 implementation date was too soon for a smooth transition and could lead to a major breakdown in the insurance claims process (2"The Gray Sheet" Oct. 27, 2008, p. 17)