ICD-10 Expected to go Live on October 1, 2015
February 16, 2015
by Luke Wagner.
Preparation is underway by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for the anticipated October 1, 2015 transition to the 10th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10), according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The report states that CMS, in addition to providing educational materials to covered entities, has started modifying Medicare’s systems and policies in preparation. CMS has completed their internal testing for the Medicare Fee-or-Service (FFS) program, and is in the process of finishing the end-to-end testing with external stakeholders.
During CMS’s first acknowledgement testing week in March 2014, the agency reported that 2,600 covered entities submitted more than 127,000 claims and 89% were accepted. In the second
acknowledgment testing, which took place in November 2014, the agency reported that 500 covered entities submitted about 13,700 claims and 76% were accepted. To complete the agency’s external testing, CMS will be conducting end-to-end testing with a total of 2,500 covered entities.
The Senate Committee on Finance is monitoring the ICD-10 roll-out for issues and, at this point in time, sees no reasons for any delay past the October 1st deadline.
For more information, see the GAO Report: CMS’s Efforts to Prepare for the New Version of the Disease and Procedure Codes.
Luke Wagner is EMP’s Director of Financial Management & Analytics.
