ICD-10 Transition Date Finalized for October 2015

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced last week that the final deadline to comply with the ICD-10 implementation requirement is October 1, 2015. The tenth edition of the International Classification of Diseases is widely viewed as a significant change in the way claims that are submitted to Medicare and private insurance payers are classified. 

These changes enable providers to coordinate patients care over distance and time, improve the accuracy of patient records with more detailed patient history coding, and reduce fraudulent claims. CMS also believes that the ICD-10's granular classifications will improve the data and analytics related to public health research, surveillance, and reporting. The more specific classifications found in ICD-10 represent, in part, the evolution of diagnosis and the modern developments in medicine and medical technology used to treat patients. 

CMS released an online resource designed to help providers in small practices make a timely transition to ICD-10. The "Road to 10" is an online resource available here. The  Road to 10 breaks allows providers to select a profile based on their expertise that is specifically tailored to each speciality's common codes, clinical documentation procedures, and clinical scenarios. Additionally, the Road to 10 gives users the opportunity to create an ICD implementation action plan specifically suited to the needs of their small practices.