A New Era
Today is the
last day that the antiquated ICD-9 diagnosis coding system will be used in
medical practices and hospitals across the country. As of tomorrow, medical billers will be
required to use the newer (to this country) ICD-10 system, which is already used
in the rest of the civilized world. Coders, billers, and most other medical professionals have invested a lot
of time preparing for this day.
There was
training to be done and subsequent testing and finally certification of the
coders. Then the computer systems in
every medical practice had to be upgraded with the new information, and oh yes,
be tested for HIPPA compliance. And, as one of our blogging friends reminded us
on several occasions, medical notes themselves needed to be updated with the
new codes. Surely this was a long,
arduous task and one that I seriously doubt could be billed to any insurance
carrier. This meant that many medical
professionals would have to revise their notes on THEIR time.
Oh, the
horror of it all!
I’m not
belittling their efforts by any means. You just need to compare one diagnosis to see the difference in the two
systems to realize the amount of work that needed to be done.
Let’s take
diabetes mellitus. The ICD-9 system
uses a maximum of five digits. The very
basic code for diabetes is 250.0, but this doesn’t account for the over 200
diabetes related conditions and their corresponding codes. In most of these cases, this requires the
addition of a fourth digit to further describe the complication and the fifth
digit to describe if the condition is either type one or type two.
ICD-10 lists
diabetes mellitus as E10. Yes, this is
an actual code and not a peg hole on your Battleship game.
Unfortunately,
all of the codes in the new system are not this simple. ICD-10 is more precise
in its descriptions of the condition, its location (body part or organ) and
even the stage of treatment for the condition (new or subsequent visit). Location of the condition is trickier in
ICD-10. The old system merely
differentiated between right and left side of the body or organ. The new system, for example, divides one organ,
the heart, into quadrants: upper left, upper right, lower left, lower
right. All this precision means more
codes and the possibility of more digits (up to seven) in each code.
Anyway, my
point today is not to bore everyone with endless coding examples, because it is
time to party! It’s the end of an era
and time to usher in the new era a la New Year’s Day! Out with the old, in with the new! A time for toasts at midnight, frivolous conviviality,
and especially an excuse to imbibe in nasty chips and nasty chip dip!
Woo-hoo!
Oh, who the
hell am I kidding. I’ll be in bed by
8:30p. Besides, as far as I know, the AMA
is not planning any special events. No party, no orchestra, not even dropping a
ball made entirely of used rubber gloves at midnight.
Hrumph! Some celebration! Another hrumph!
Who planned
this transition in the middle of the year, in the middle of a work week,
anyway? Oh, that’s right, the killjoys
in Congress. No surprise here!
(Thank you
for reading. Happy New Coding, Spo!)
posted by todd gunther | 6:05 PM
|
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