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What is ICD-10

A huge number of professionals in the healthcare industry have been using 75Health for ICD-10 and other useful technologies.

ICD-10

World-over, healthcare system has been relying on specific set of codes for reporting the various diagnoses and patient procedures. Introduced in the 1970s and referred to as ICD-9, the earlier code set was in vogue until ICD-10, the more detailed set of codes replaced it on October 1, 2015. ICD, as known, represents International Classification of Diseases. ICD-10 codes hold crucial information about managing health, epidemiology, and treating conditions. Moreover, appropriate information about social circumstances, signs and symptoms, and external causes related to injuries are included in it.

ICD-10 happens to be the 10th revision of the universal medical classification by the WHO. With over 14,400 different codes that may be expanded further to more than 16,000 codes by making use of optional sub-classifications, ICD-10 has been designated as the code set under HIPAA.

The Role of ICD-10 in the Contemporary Healthcare Setting

Beginning 2015, ICD-10 officially replaced ICD-9. It is mandatory that physicians and other medical professionals use it for any healthcare services provided. This mandate is applicable to reimbursement towards healthcare services, reporting services, and research.

ICD-10: the Exclusive Advantages

Following ICD-9 since 1979 and finding it to be not robust enough for effectively serving the needs related to healthcare, the U.S. and other nations realized the need for a changed code set that was not restricted to patient health conditions and inpatient procedures of hospitals. The limited number of codes in the earlier version and the restrictive coding structure were found not to be sufficient. This gave birth to the robust ICD-10 with its powerful codes covering all the essential healthcare requirements.

ICD-10 code sets are found to be capable of enhancing data quality for the following:
  • Clinical decision making
  • Public health condition tracking
  • Patient Care and outcome measurement
  • Better data with regard to epidemiological research
  • Claim process and payment system designs
  • Abuse and fraud identification
Why is ICD-10 Considered Crucial for the Current and Future Healthcare Ecosystem?

ICD-10, through the expanded diagnosis codes and categories, ensures fostering a far accurate system of reporting and this leads to improved clinical decision support. Tracking and measuring patient care quality and care utilization becomes possible with ICD-10. With vastly improved granularity over ICD-9, ICD-10 enables a greater specificity when it comes to identifying various health conditions. The following are the features that make ICD-10 robust and effective:

  • Greater level of detail including severity, laterality, and complexity of various disease conditions enable far better and precise tracking as well as identification of specific health conditions.
  • Poisonings, injuries, and external causes prove to be very much detailed in ICD-10. Codes include not only injury severity but also how injuries occurred.
  • The revised disease classification and terminology are seen to be more consistent with the current clinical practice and innovative technologies.
  • Post-operative codes are expanded; they are now capable of distinguishing among post-procedural and intraoperative complications.
  • Pregnancy trimester has been designated in the pregnancy-related chapter in the ICD-10.
  • New concepts that were not available in ICD-9 such as blood type, alcohol level, and under dosing are available in ICD-10.

ICD-10 transition has been seen to be one of the most disruptive advancements in the healthcare industry. Previous HIPAA mandates required physicians to lean on other partners such as vendors, clearinghouses, and billing services heavily, whereas, the new ICD-10 codes require a deeper level of involvement from the physicians and medical professionals.

A huge number of professionals in the healthcare industry have been using 75Health for ICD-10 and other useful technologies.