A recent JustCoding.com survey of HIM/coding professionals posed the following question: "How would you describe the HIM Director's role in ICD-10 implementation?" This is the breakdown of the 379...
The following question was submitted to ICD-10 Watch, and so I thought I would share some of my thoughts on the subject. QUESTION: Our billing department often submits claims a week or more after the...
CMS recently posted on its Web site audio and call transcripts for a November provider call focused on the ICD-10-CM/ICD-10-PCS MS-DRG Conversion Project. Speakers discussed the following during the...
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that you did not find any coal in your stockings! Maybe Santa left you some tools to begin planning for the implementation of ICD-10. 2010 has arrived,...
CMS recently posted ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS files for 2010 on its Web site . Check out the "What's New" documents for both ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS . Interested in the breakdown of revisions? For...
One of the major reasons cited for moving from ICD-9-CM to ICD-10-CM is that the new coding system is more specific. So I thought I would look at some of the coding challenges we have today with ICD-...
Some things you are accustomed to in ICD-9-CM will remain the same in ICD-10-CM. One rather obscure convention that exists in ICD-9-CM that also carries over to ICD-10-CM is the use of the word “and...
Many experts in the healthcare community have compared the transition to ICD-10 to Y2K. So how do you estimate the costs associated with such an enormous undertaking? There are the obvious costs...
In September 2003, the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) issued a report titled, " ICD-10 Field Testing Project ," which summarized findings after 169 participants...
Pop quiz everyone! Let's use the ICD-10 tools we have at our disposal to try to crosswalk an ICD-9-CM code we use today to ICD-10-CM. ICD-9-CM code 084.4 (Other malaria) crosswalks to what ICD-10-CM...
General Equivalence Mappings (GEMs) were the creation of work completed by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), CMS, the American Health Information Management Association, the American...
During a November 17 virtual meeting hosted by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), co-presenter Laurine Johnson, MS, RHIA, CPC-H, director of HIM services at Ingenix, gave...
Over the last six months, I have noticed that the FAQ sections for different associations and organizations have increased in size and detail. Are you interested in learning the answers to the...
On November 12, the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) is hosting a virtual meeting titled, " ICD-10 Implementation for Hospitals ." According to AHIMA Web site, the program...
During this three-day training, we learned as much as possible about this new classification system. I received a letter in the mail right before leaving for the American Health Information...
In a recent post , I talked about my experience attending an American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) Academy for ICD-10 trainer session. While I am excited about certain aspects of...
I recently completed the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) Academy for ICD-10 trainer session in Grapevine, TX. It was a whirlwind experience. The days were long, but it was...
You'll be happy to add this code translator to your collection of ICD-10 tools. The American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) released on October 20 a free ICD-10-CM online code conversion tool...
On October 2, the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) posted three new practice briefs related to ICD-10 on its Web site . Click on "All current practice briefs in...
This is just one of hundreds examples of changes coming with ICD-10. Every family practice regardless of size should identify a person(s) to be the designated ICD-10 expert. To develop appropriate...
Although the U.S. healthcare community is bracing themselves for this massive switch to ICD-10 in 2013, many other countries have already been through it. For example, providers in Canada...
Looking back a year later, I now feel relatively confident in my background knowledge of ICD-10. And I did not spend any money. Read more in Part 1 and Part 2 of this blog post about my cost-...
I was poking around the CMS Web site today, in the ICD-10 section of course, and I noticed a brand new page devoted to the ICD-10 MS-DRG Conversion Project . While I've heard different CMS...
The thought of sitting down and creating an ICD-10 transition timeline from scratch can be daunting. If you want some inspiration, check out these two timelines that are posted on the North Carolina...
On September 16, 3M Health Information Systems announced that it had released the 3M™ ICD-10 Code Translation Tool, a new software application that helps convert ICD-9 based applications to ICD-10...
As each day passes, we get closer to the implementation date of ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS. I have been scouring the ICD-10 manual to identify things that will change (some things for the better, some...
I have always thought that ICD-9 procedure codes were very non-specific and that it is no wonder that inpatient coders don’t like CPT coding. However after looking at what is going to happen with ICD...
Excludes notes in ICD-10 will have a slightly different look. Currently in ICD-9, there are simply excludes notes listed below codes in italic font. In ICD-10, there are two types of exclude notes:...
In my last blog post , I explained how I tackled the challenge of educating myself about ICD-10, realizing the significant cost that would be associated with registering for every ICD-10 Webinar,...
CMS will host its third national Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) education call on HIPAA Version 5010 on September 9, from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Providers will need to transition to this new transaction...
Are you an educator who needs to learn ICD-10 as soon as possible so that you can be prepared to teach your students, coding staff members, or other clients and entities that you serve? Are you...
Even though it's still early to start studying and learning ICD-10 codes, at this point you should at least take a look at codes you commonly assign to get a sense of the changes and to see whether...
What is your organization doing to plan for the transition to ICD-10? Have you formed an ICD-10 implementation committee? Have coding staff members attended any recent educational sessions, such as...
It is widely known that ICD-10 is going to be much more specific than ICD-9. While that is true, there are some ICD-9 codes that will not be as specific in ICD-10. Here are two examples: ICD-9 codes...
In a recent JustCoding.com mini-poll, we asked subscribers the following question: Has your organization established a timeline for the transition to ICD-10? This is the breakdown of the 151...
As I heaved my ICD-9 Manual , projector, and laptop into the overhead bin on my flight home from Atlanta this past Friday after teaching an inpatient coding boot camp, a thought occurred to me: What...
How much ICD-10 training are you ready for today? The American Health Information Management Association states: It would be impractical and a waste of resources and time to start training coders now...
In a previous blog , I discussed how CMS was considering freezing updates to the ICD-9-CM and ICD-10 coding systems prior to the October 1, 2013 implementation. Many in the industry have said that...
Although the health care community is primarily focusing on the implementation to ICD-10 in 2013, a critical step before the new coding system takes effect is the switch to transaction standard...
CMS recently posted on its Web site a presentation titled "Introduction to ICD-10-CM/PCS: For Physician Specialty Group Representatives." In addition to CMS representative Pat Brooks, a number of...
CMS recently posted a very good document titled ICD-10-CM/PCS Myths & Facts , which clarified many myths regarding ICD-10 and specified facts upon which you should base your plan for...
CMS has created a tool that can help ease the process for mapping out equivalent codes between ICD-9 and ICD-10. On May 19, CMS hosted an ICD-10-CM/PCS implementation and General Equivalence Mappings...
ICD-10 will bring a lot of welcome changes and correct many of the issues and shortcomings with ICD-9. One particular source of confusion with ICD-9 relates to the excludes notes. In ICD-9, the...
You might be far enough along in your ICD-10 implementation timeline to attend some informational sessions that go beyond the basics. "You're going to see more companies advertising functional...
One of the many things that will be affected in order to accommodate the ICD-10 codes is the format of electronic claims. CMS recently announced that it receives more than 99% of the Medicare Part A...
On May 19, CMS hosted a conference call during which it addressed the use of General Equivalence Mappings (GEMs). A transcript of the call is now available on the CMS Web site . CMS representative...
Since the Department of Health and Human Services' January announcement on the final rule for the implementation of ICD-10, many questions have popped up. Some in the industry feel that if they do...
Since we have talked and read globally about ICD-10, I thought we should turn the pages a little deeper and look at some commonly used codes and see what they will look like October 1, 2013, when the...
One of the most poorly documented and miscoded diagnosis is when a physician documents the term "urosepsis." Does the physician mean that the patient has a systemic infection originating from a...
With all the complexities related to the implementation of ICD-10, it's no wonder that so many in the healthcare industry have a number of questions related to the various aspects of this new coding...
