2010-08-04

Beginning on October 1, 2013, all physicians and other entities covered under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) must begin using the new International Classification of Disease (ICD)-10 adopted code set. ASH is working with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to assure a smooth transition from ICD-9, which consists of roughly 14,000 codes, to ICD-10, which expands to more than 68,000 codes.

A critical issue associated with this transition involves ensuring that the crosswalking, or mapping, between the ICD-9 and ICD-10 code sets is unambiguous. Because of the potential for different providers to develop different crosswalks, ASH and other medical societies have been asked by CMS to assist with this process. This will reduce or eliminate the potential for significant confusion and disruption in the coding, billing, and payment processes. To this end, ASH will monitor and assess the crosswalks relevant to hematology and provide information to CMS to ensure that physicians will apply codes in a consistent manner.

Ultimately, all physicians, other health-care providers, payers, and Health Information Management professionals will need to update their systems appropriately to report and process ICD-10 codes in order to avoid disruptions to claims processing in 2013. ASH will keep members informed about developments as the transition progresses.

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