ICD 10 Coding Alert

Best bet: Keep up your implementation plans.

In the wake of the Supreme Court's recent ruling, you may be wondering how this affects your ICD-10 implementation. We've got the lowdown.

Recall the History of ICD-10

The requirement to move toward the electronic format of 5010 and the ICD10 code set was actually part of the HIPAA 1996 under the Clinton administration. (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996), says Suzan Berman, CPC, CEMC, CEDC, Senior Director of Physician Services at Healthcare Revenue Assurance Associates based out of Plantation, Florida.

"Parts of this Act have been implement since then. With different push backs, the newest version of ASC 5010 was implemented in 1/1/2012. This was done to set the stage for ICD- 10 with its new proposed implementation date of October 1, 2014 (still officially October 1, 2013 until an announcement is made)," Berman says.

So you can clearly see Obamacare, as it's been coined (Affordable Care Act 2009), doesn't include the ICD-10 code set. "It was brought to light before this," Berman adds.

What This Means For You

You should push forward with your ICD-10 assessments and implementation plans.

Remember, "ICD-10 is a code set that we have known about since the World Health Organization first introduced it in the early 1990s. It will help to further define disease states, epidemics, trends, technologies, and other areas to research and study. Because it is a code set, we will also be using it for our insurance claim submissions. This is where the training of physicians and coders along with administrators is invaluable," Berman says.