Question
How are we expected to transition to the new diagnosis codes if they are expected to increase tenfold?
Answer
This is where a lot of education has to come into play, and this is not just audiologists who will need to make the transition; this is the entirety of health care. The ICD-10 was supposed to take effect October 1, 2011, and Blue Cross Blue Shield was successful in postponing it for two years. One of the reasons for this delay was on part of the insurance companies who knew it was going to be very difficult for their systems to adapt and establish crosswalks between the old coding system and the new coding system. It is going to be a challenge for physicians and non-physician providers to adapt to it as well. It is a whole new system of a completely new language. I can guarantee you that there will be a number of continuing education sessions from all of our continuing education providers over the next year-and-a-half to prepare everyone. Even after ICD-10 is implemented, there will need to be further educational sessions on how to deal with it.
Like buying a new computer with new software, it is going to be very frustrating at first, but once you live with it for awhile and figure out its idiosyncrasies, we will get used to it. We will, again, know which codes to use for what but will likely need to search a little bit for specific codes we are unfamiliar with and do not use as often. The taxonomy for what we deal with most will be ready and available at our fingertips, and we should be able to get used to it, much as we did when the ICD-9 was first introduced.
Please note: the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced in the fall of 2012 that the implementation date for ICD-10 has been pushed back to October 1, 2014.
Editor’s Note: This Ask the Expert was taken from the eSeminar Reimbursement: The 2012 Perspective published on 2/9/2012. To access the recorded course, please visit https://www.audiologyonline.com/ceus/recordedcoursedetails.asp?class_id=19955
