CMS undertakes efforts to prepare for the new version of the disease and procedure codes

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has undertaken a number of efforts to prepare for the October 1, 2015, transition to the 10th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) codes, which are used for documenting patient medical diagnoses and inpatient medical procedures.

CMS has developed educational materials, such as checklists and timelines, for entities covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)—that is, healthcare providers, clearinghouses, and health plans, which Government Accountability Office (GAO) refers to as “payers”—and their support vendors.

In addition, CMS has conducted outreach to prepare covered entities for the transition by, for example, holding in-person training for small physician practices in some states. CMS officials have also monitored covered entity and vendor readiness through stakeholder collaboration meetings, focus group testing, and review of surveys conducted by the healthcare industry.

CMS also reported modifying its Medicare systems and policies. For example, CMS documentation states that the agency completed all ICD-10-related changes to its Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) claims processing systems, which reflect the results of internal testing.

Stakeholder organizations identified several areas of concern about the ICD-10 transition and made several recommendations, which CMS has taken steps to address. For example, stakeholders expressed concerns that CMS's testing activities have not been comprehensive.

In response, CMS officials said that the agency has scheduled end-to-end testing with 2,550 covered entities during three weeks in 2015 (in January, April, and July), and has promoted awareness of its educational materials by, for example, partnering with payers, providers, and others to direct users to available CMS and industry educational resources.

Stakeholders also recommended that CMS expand its in-person training and develop additional specialty-specific materials. CMS officials said the agency has added in-person training in additional states with plans to also offer more video trainings, and planned to develop additional specialty-specific materials.