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The long awaited, oft-delayed ICD-10 conversion day has arrived! Today, healthcare providers in the U.S. are required to start using ICD-10 codes for medical billing and record-keeping.
Healthcare organizations have been preparing for this change for years, and the actual conversion date has been argued about and postponed repeatedly. And then there's been the flood of jokes about ICD-10 codes for bizarre and improbable injuries and ailments. Here are two widely-ridiculed favorites:
- V97.33XD: Sucked into jet engine, subsequent encounter
- W56.22xA: Struck by Orca
Humor aside, ICD-10 is here to stay. Even if you've done your homework, whether you're a medical coder or health IT CIO, you're likely to run into unexpected hiccups with the new system. Here are two articles to make sure you stay ahead of the curve on successfully adopting ICD-10.
Healthcare's Y2K: The Dreaded ICD-10 Conversion - This post by Health IT developer Terry Shaver explains some of the anxiety around the ICD-10 switch, and how healthcare organizations have been preparing for the change.
ICD-10 Conversion Readiness Guide - This guide walks you through the benefits of smart health IT monitoring after you convert to ICD-10. Since using ICD-9 codes after the deadline can result in unpaid claims and bad patient experiences, it is important to make sure your whole system is compliant. The guide shows you how.
Here's what other major publications are saying about the switch, now that the day has finally arrived:
NPR: Struck By A Macaw? Now There's A Medical Diagnosis Code For That
Bloomberg: There Are Now Officially 70,000 Ways to Get Sick or Die
Forbes: Patients Brace For Erroneous Bills In Today's Shift To New ICD-10 Medical Codes
Healthcare Finance News: Hospital IT departments become 'war rooms' as ICD-10 codes go live
And finally, and my personal favorite, here is the government website where you can type in whatever terms you want, and see if there's an ICD-10 code associated with it.
Search some keywords and tweet your favorites at us (@ExtraHop) with the hashtag #ICD10day and the best one (judged using the very scientific process of which one we like the most), will win an ExtraHop T-shirt!
