The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced yet another delay for ICD-10. This time, the delay will benefit providers.
CMS has pushed out the ICD-10 testing deadline to January 21, 2015. CMS will use takeaways from end-to-end testing of ICD-10 for educational materials and providers will learn how ICD-10 claims are being adjudicated and providers will learn the effect on reimbursement.
According to CMS, participating organizations will submit future-dated claims and give National Provider Identifiers, Provider Transaction Access Numbers and beneficiary Health Insurance Claim Numbers that will be used test the claims process.
To volunteer as a testing submitter:
- Volunteer forms are available on yourMAC website.
- Completed volunteer forms are due January 21.
- CMS will review applications and select the group of testing submitters.
- By February 13, the MACs and CEDI will notify the volunteers selected to test and provide them with the information needed for the testing.
If selected, testers must be able to:
- Submit future-dated claims.
- Provide valid National Provider Identifiers (NPIs), Provider Transaction Access Numbers (PTANs), and beneficiary Health Insurance Claim Numbers (HICNs) that will be used for test claims. This information will be needed by your MACby February 20, 2015for set-up purposes; Testers will be dropped if information is not provided by the deadline.
An additional opportunity for end-to-end testing will be available during the week of July 20 through 24, 2015. Any issues identified during testing will be addressed prior to ICD-10 implementation.
Will there be another delay?
For the United States healthcare industry, ICD-10 provides us with an opportunity to finally implement a much more robust coding system that allows greater clinical detail and specificity for hospitals, payers, physicians and others in the healthcare industry. As of the time of this update, ICD-10 CM/PCS is still on track to go live on October 1, 2015.
Did you know we have ICD-10 CM and ICD-10 CM Primer modules that are available in our course library? With October less than 10 months away, now would be a good time to access and take either module.
If you have any questions or would like more information about ICD-10, please feel free to comment below or send us an email [email protected] or reach us by phone 855-427-0427.