Minnetonka, MN (PRWEB) October 21, 2012
Its official, the start date for the United States adopting the ICD-10 has been changed to October 1, 2014 with many indications that will be the final push back. CMS (Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services) has put together many good resources to assist providers, payers, billing services and clearinghouses. Here is a great link that even includes downloadable widgets:
http://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/ICD10/ICD-10ImplementationTimelines.html
Included within are some frequently asked questions (FAQS) some to be noted are:
1) Q: If a provider doesn’t bill Medicare, do they still need to convert to ICD-10 codes? A: Yes, all covered entities under HIPAA need to comply.
2) Q: Does ICD-10 affect the CPT codes? A: No.
3) Q: When ICD-10 becomes affective on October 1, 2014, do we bill all our outstanding claims and new claims with the ICD-10 codes? A: No, you need to bill the claims prior to October 1, 2014 with the ICD-9 codes and the claims October 1, 2014 and after with the new codes. This is most likely going to pose a transitional difficulty with software, vendors and payers.
Another important item to note is that industry experts are recommending that providers have or secure financing of six to nine months of operating capital to affectively operate during this transition. Now is an important time to start researching and prepare and since you are ready this article, it looks like you are in the game.
Finally, another great tool to come from this transition is the GEM’s. GEM’s stand for General Equivalency Mappings and they help create a bridge between ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes. There are warnings in the field that using GEM’s are no substitute for proper training and only a small percentages of searches will create a direct match. However, they were created by CMS to assist providers in becoming familiar with the new coding structure. Below is a good link to explain further how GEM’s work.
http://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/ICD10/Downloads/GEMs-CrosswalksBasicFAQ.pdf
Finally, Medical Billing Done Right, LLC aka Billing Buddies is committed to producing a dependable cash flow for our clients. Education is one of the ingredients at the top of our list in achieving this. On staff, we have two CMRS’s (Certified Medical Reimbursement Specialists) and one CCCPC (ChiroCode Certified Chiropractic Professional Coder) and we have been serving clients for over 18 years. If you should need billing assistance, please call us at 763-546-2455 or email us at solutions (at) billingbuddies (dot) com.