Physician Practice

Despite predictions, few problems with ICD-10 in 2016

Physician Practice Insider, August 23, 2016

At this time last year, many physicians were worrying about the arrival of ICD-10 in October; some were even talking about doomsday scenarios with mountains of claim denials and delayed payments. But one year later, the debut of ICD-10 is earning widespread comparisons to Y2K, the turn-of-the-century transition for all things computerized that went down in history as a non-event.

Analysts attribute the uneventful launch of ICD-10 to a number of factors, including a one-year launch delay that gave physicians more time to prepare, and a one-year grace period from CMS that accepts imperfect claims from providers as long as they are in the correct coding category.
 
“The things we’ve heard from the commercial plans is that things have gone much better than expected,” says Rob Tennant, health information technology policy director for the Medical Group Management Association in Washington, D.C. “At the very least, we haven’t heard of any widespread problems with rejected claims and practices not being paid, which was the fear heading into this.”

Another factor that helped was a spirit of cooperation that developed between physician groups and CMS in the months leading up to the launch.

This article was originally published in Physician Practice Perspectives. Subscribers can read the full article in the July 2016 issue.

Most Popular