Bristol Healthcare Service Transitioned to ICD-10 well Before 2016

October 1, 2016, marked the end of one year that was allowed by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the American Medical Association (AMA) to help ease the transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 for physician practices.

At Bristol Healthcare Services, our team of certified coders efficiently managed to transit from ICD-9 to ICD-10 well before the stipulated date.  Initially, we struggled with cardiology coding in E and G codes but very soon managed to submit correct claims.

To keep you posted:

The end of this transitional period could be a tough one if your coding professionals neglect to prepare for it.

The transition to the ICD-10 and Related Health Problems appears to have gone well so far, despite widespread anxiety that it would wreak havoc across the healthcare industry as providers struggled to comply with the new coding structure, heightened specificity and documentation requirements.  Nevertheless, physicians still face significant obstacles in two main areas as the ICD-10 transition continues.  According to a recent survey, of medical coding services, it is not yet clear how much of the ICD-10 implementation’s success so far stems from the first-year concessions for providers negotiated by the AMA in collaboration with the CMS.  This elasticity allows coders to be reimbursed for wrongly coded claims as long as the erroneous code submitted is in the same wide family as the correct one.  Coders be clear that your providers will no longer be reimbursed for these wrongly coded claims when the grace period ends on September 30, 2016.

Feel free to contact us to find out how we managed to implement ICD-10 well before the grace period ended.