Moving to ICD-10

When will we move to using the ICD-10 codes? The mandated implementation date has been pushed back from October 1, 2011 to October 1, 2013. By that date, use of the ICD-9 code set must be replaced by the ICD-10 code set.

Hospitals, and physician practices and health insurance companies should be gearing up for ICD-10 now. Most have not started or have begun only rudimentary planning. They should have identified staff to train on ICD-10 and develop training materials. Product requirements need to be determined.

One reason is that providers tend to see the change as more minor than it is; they see it as only a more extensive version of the yearly diagnosis code updates. Instead, transitioning from ICD-9 to ICD-10 is a huge project. It has been compared to the Y2K date correction in scale. Stakeholders include physicians, hospitals, other healthcare providers, and medical billing and health insurance claims staff, all of whom must be trained to use the new coding system. 

Technology vendors must update their medical record, billing, insurance and reporting software to simultaneously handle both ICD-9 and ICD-19 codes until transition is complete. Health insurance policies will also need to be updated to accommodate the newly-recognized diagnosis and procedure codes.