Today marks the official release of ICD-10, this is the long awaited 10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems by the World Health Organization.

ICD-10 allows for a more robust set of codes to be used to identify diseases that can then be used to improve mortality by being more precise in the diagnoses and cause of certain illnesses.

In the group health setting it is mandatory starting today the providers use the IDC-10 codes, however if a patient is already admitted into a facility like a hospital then IDC-9 codes can still be accepted.  Likewise on the workers compensation front ICD-10 has not been established as protocol in every state meaning that those states that have not adopted this can still submit ICD-9 for billing.

Who is going to suffer the most of this conversion.  On one hand you have these claims adjusters that have been used to ICD-9 with its limited number of codes, now having to move to ICD-10 which can encompass up to 68,000 different codes.  Plus on top of that you are still going to be asked to reference ICD-9 codes at times.  This is surely going to cause some backup and delay in billing being processed right away.

You also have all these providers in the same boat that now have to learn a totally new set of codes, but also on top of that have to have their billing systems up to par to be able to handle the conversion to ICD-10 codes.  Will they be running two systems if they still need to process ICD-9 codes?

It should be interesting to see how prepared or unprepared everyone is for this shift.  Will it cause delays in treatments or billing?  Only time will tell for the industry.  If you will be required to make the switch I wish you all the best in your conversion, Hopefully you wont have to use the code Z56.3 – Problem Related to a Stressful Work Schedule on yourself.