It's The Crunch Time

ICD-9-CM codes are the majority numbers only with the exception of those supplemental V and E codes, ICD-10-CM codes are all alphanumeric.

Coding systems are used in the inpatient and outpatient settings for the classification of patient morbidity and mortality information for statistical use. The World Health Organization (WHO) developed the Ninth Revision, International Classification of Diseases (ICD-9) in the 1970s to track mortality statistics across the world. The International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM), is the adaptation the U.S. health system uses as a standard list of six-character alphanumeric codes to describe diagnoses. Globally utilizing a standardized system improves consistency in recording symptoms and diagnoses for payer claims reimbursement, as well as clinical research, and tracking purposes.

To make life easier you should document these patients with both ICD-9 and ICD-10 from the getgo. By entering all of your patient’s insurance information into your billing system, it will prompt you to enter both code sets at the beginning of treatment enabling a smooth transition to a patient’s secondary insurance once his primary benefits have been exhausted.

The continue use of ICD-9 codes after the effective date could result in the denial of reimbursement claims. This task can be assigned to the healthcare organization’s management team to determine a solution avoiding a break down in the system. Rahmathulla states, “In instances of an audit, appropriate documentation will make the query process substantially easier while enabling coders to clarify issues without having to query the provider multiple times for answers” (“Migration To The ICD-10 Coding System S187). It is important to accurately document to reduce the amount of claim denials. With the new specificity requirement of the ICD-10 and documentation supporting a claim, lowers the chances of healthcare fraud. The healthcare management team will oversee the process to prevent the risk of exposure.

I am choosing ICD-10 Codes. The reason I have chosen ICD-10 codes is because every medical facility uses the ICD-10 codes for the billing and coding. That is the only way they get paid is by using ICD-10 codes. They will all receive adequate payments using the updated codes and the right type of billing.

ICD-10 is a huge change from ICD-9, the main purpose was to help coders code more specific. One benefit of ICD-10 is to give the doctor an electronic trail of proof for payments from patients, insurance, government, and hospitals. ICD-9 having diagnosis codes ranging from three to five digits but ICD-10 having diagnosis codes ranging from three to seven digits will automatically give you a more detailed code. Using ICD-10 gives you a lesser risk of getting audited. Giving a specific description on claim forms will make it harder to get the wrong code. ICD-10 will improve healthcare, the codes are more detailed making the data and communication flow faster. ICD-10's will help guarantee the physician reputation; the electronic trails are reported

The first digit in ICD-9-CM diagnosis codes is numeric except for codes in the supplemental chapters that include the letters E or V. The first digit in ICD-10-CM codes is always a letter.

- structure of diagnosis codes. Codes in ICD-10-CM have 3-7 characters where character 1 is alpha, and character 2 is numeric. On other side, there are 3-5 characters in ICD-9-CM where character 1 is numeric or alpha.

The International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) has been in development since 1983 to replace the outdated Ninth Revision (ICD-9) that has been in use in the U.S. for over 35 years (Giannangelo, 2015). Due to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Administrative Simplification regulation published in 2009, the Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) will replace ICD-9-CM Volumes 1 and 2, and the Procedure Coding System (ICD-10-PCS) will replace ICD-9-CM Volume 3 for all HIPAA transactions effective October 2015 (Giannangelo, 2015). These new code sets accommodate new procedures and diagnoses and allow for greater specificity in clinical documentation (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS],

The United States implemented the current version (ICD-9) in 1979. ICD-10- CM is the mandated code set for diagnoses under the HIPAA Electronic Health Care Transactions and Code Sets standard starting on October 1, 2014. While most countries moved to ICD-10 several years ago, the United States is just now transitioning into ICD-10 and has to be compliant by October 1, 2015. ICD has been revised a number of times since the coding system was first developed more than a hundred years ago.

Many people get confused when they hear the terms inpatient and outpatient. An inpatient is a patient hospitalized for more than 24 hours, but the stay can be less, depending on doctor’s orders. An outpatient is a patient that does not stay overnight in a medical facility and goes home. ICD-9-CM diagnosis codes are 3 to 5 digits long (numeric) or can be a letter followed by up to 4 digits (alphanumeric). For example, the code for Hypertension is (401.9), examination of the breast is (V76.10), and struck accidentally by a falling object is (E916). ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes are three to seven digits or characters long. The first character is a letter, and the second to seventh characters are letters or numbers. For example, sprain of unspecified

There are lots of similarities and differences between ICD-9 and ICD-10. You need to look up the terms in a coding manual, but the codes are all different. Both ICD-9 and ICD-10 code to the highest greatest level of specificity per the information provided. The ICD-9 codes were 3-5 digits where the ICD-10 codes are 5-7 digits in length. ICD-10 codes are more specific as to left or right, front or back where ICD-9 codes were not as specific. In ICD-10, an “X” is used as a placeholder

ICD-9-CM contained procedural codes in volume 3, ICD-10-CM does not contain any as they are now implemented within ICD-10-PCS..More conditions require multiple coding in ICD because it has fewer combination codes than ICD 10 cm I spent 1 hour 30 minutes reading the book and Plus I watching videos of ICD 9 cm and ICD 10 cm

The compliance date for implementation of the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Edition, Clinical Modification/Procedure Coding System (ICD-10-CM/PCS) was October 1, 2013 for all covered entities. Although, a number of countries that have already converted to ICD-10:

ICD-10, which is the tenth revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problem, refers to a medical classification inventory for the coding of diseases, their signs, symptoms and causes (Center for Disease Control and Prevention 1). The use of this revised version in the United States is scheduled to begin officially on the first of October 2013. Currently, ICD-10 is being used for diagnosis coding, in procedure coding systems and for inpatient procedure coding.