10 Facts You Didn’t Know about ICD-10

While ICD-10 is a well-worn topic, the fact is that another delay is unlikely, and therefore organizations should prepare now and train users in order to stay ahead of the game. So, it’s time to test your ICD-10 knowledge.

Did you know…

1. ICD is the standard diagnostic tool for epidemiology, health management and clinical purposes.
2. ICD-10 has been in place since 1996.
3. It’s available in 6 official languages and 36 other languages.
4. ICD-10 has 69,000 codes vs. ICD-9’s 14,000. This makes it much more specific than ICD-9.
5. An ICD-10 code is not valid if it has not been coded to the full number of characters required.
6. Every ICD-10 code follows the same structure: Category – 1st Digit Alpha – 2nd and 3rd Digit Numeric – Etiology, Anatomical Site, Severity – 4-7th digits numeric
7. GEMs are developed to provide help in mapping ICD-9 to ICD-10.
8. ICD-11 is being developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and will be released in 2017, but based on historical timelines, the US will not implement ICD-11 until 2039!

And here are two more facts you should know:

9. Net Health will be prepared to enable ICD-10 coding before it’s mandatory to allow users to learn the coding system and how it will impact the user interface (coding, reports, and billing). Optima plans to allow dual coding (both ICD-9 and ICD-10) through the transition.
10. Net Health will update (or provide tools to update) all areas that are currently referenced by ICD-9 with the applicable ICD-10 codes (diagnostic categories, LCD sets, etc.).

For more information, check out the WHO and CMS websites.

Have other questions or concerns about ICD-10? Reach out to the specialists at Net Health.