Posts Tagged ‘ICD-9’

In this month’s SurgiStrategies magazine AAPC member Quita Edwards, CPC, COSC, CPC-I shares proper coding of pain management and tips for compliance and reimbursement. This article is not available online yet, but can be found on page 26 of the April issue.

If you subscribe to CMA Today, make sure to check out the article by AAPC member Donna Bourhill, CPC, CEMC, PMCC, in the Jan/Feb 2010 issue. Bourhill shares insights into the 350 new, revised and invalid 2010 ICD-9 code changes.

With the new 2010 ICD-9 codes, there are a number of changes that affect new facet injection coding. Paul Cadorette CPC, CPC-H, CPC-P, CEDC, COSC, CASCC highlights six code-set updates that you should be aware of.

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G. J. Verhovshek, MA, CPC covered the medical coding changes for 2010. The article focused on the release of CPT® 2010 and how it brings with it approximately 30 code revisions, additions, and deletions relevant to radiology, along with new Radiology Guidelines defining a special report.

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By Rhonda Buckholtz, CPMA, CPC-I, CGSC, COBGC, CPEDC, CENTC

Even though at this point it is hard to see down the road, there are many anticipated benefits of ICD-10-CM. One of the major benefits in moving to ICD-10-CM is that providers will have the ability to better describe new diseases and new understanding of diseases such as diabetes, HIV, injuries and external causes, drugs and neoplasms. ICD-10 will allow expertise in clinical classification and terminology that will assist in the use of clinical terminologies in electronic health records as well as provide international compatibility. ICD-9-CM is over thirty years old;  it is outdated and there is no room for future expansion. Read more »

Jillian Harrington,
ICD-10 Curriculum Team
American Academy of Professional Coders

One of the questions I receive most often when out and speaking with people in the compliance community about ICD-10 is “What can we do to get started?”.  Compliance professionals are in an interesting situation, as they are not typically the main starting point for operational issues such as these.  However, an early start to becoming compliant with the ICD-10 code sets, either as a provider or a payer is obviously of great importance to all compliance staff. Read more »

Deborah Grider, CPC, CPC-H, CPC-I, CPC-P, CPMA, CEMC, COBGC, CPCD, CCS-P
Vice President, Strategic Development
American Academy of Professional Coders

Recently, I traveled to Washington and was given the privilege to attend and participate representing the AAPC in listening session with various industry leaders in December in the country including AHIP, AHA, AMA, Blue Cross Blue Shield, CMS, and many other organizations regarding the problems and challenges the industry faces when implementing ICD-10. Every organization present during the session was asked to identify key challenges when facing the enormous task of ICD-10 implementation.  The most concerning area is that most organizations including health plans, hospitals, physicians and medical practices and many others assume that HHS will push back the implementation date and most have not begun to start the process of discovery and understanding of ICD-10 with their organization.  In fact the consensus from the industry that most were ignoring the ICD-10 mandate for now. One of the most significant areas of concern was business process changes which will impact every organization and ICD-10 training.  Getting ready for ICD-10 is the most significant change that our industry will experience in decades. Read more »

JustCoding.com spoke with AAPC Vice President of Business and Member Development Rhonda Buckholtz about the potential effects ICD-10 will have on coder productivity. According to Buckholtz, the impact will be huge at first. JustCoding.com also spoke with other industry experts, who weighed in on the potential effects.

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ICD-9-CM for 2010 brings many code changes relative to urgent care coding. Several of these changes and updates are outlined in this article written by AAPC member Sherry Frye Smith, CCS, CPC-I, CEMC, CCS-P, CPC-H.

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Two industry-leading sources in medical coding join forces to offer ICD-10 implementation training to providers, outpatient clinics and health plans in preparation for the 2013 compliance deadline

SALT LAKE CITY—Dec. 17, 2009— The American Academy of Professional Coders and Ingenix today announced a collaborative training effort that will ensure physician practices, outpatient clinics and health plans are properly prepared to implement ICD-10 medical coding systems by the Oct. 1, 2013 compliance deadline set by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The programs, which include on-site, Web-based and group training sessions, will be available beginning January 2010. They were developed by a team of experts led by nationally renowned ICD-10 authority Deborah Grider, CPC, CPC-I, CPC-H, CPC-P. Read more »