Federal CMS announces ICD-10 acknowledgement testing weeks

Friday, December 12, 2014 07:09 AM

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is in the process of implementing ICD-10. All covered entities must be fully compliant on Oct. 1, 2015. CR8858 instructs all Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) and the Durable Medical Equipment MAC Common Electronic Data Interchange (CEDI) contractor to promote ICD-10 Acknowledgement Testing with trading partners during three separate testing weeks, and to collect data about the testing. The first testing week was held Nov. 17-21, and two additional weeks are scheduled:

• March 2-6, 2015
• June 1-5, 2015

While submitters may acknowledgement test ICD-10 claims at any time through implementation, the ICD-10 testing weeks have been created to generate awareness and interest, and to instill confidence in the provider community that the federal CMS and the MACs are ready and prepared for the ICD-10 implementation.

These testing weeks will allow trading partners access to MACs and CEDI for testing with real-time help desk support. The event will be conducted virtually and will be posted on the federal CMS website, the CEDI website and each MAC’s website.

Key points of the testing process:

• Test claims with ICD-10 codes must be submitted with current dates of service since testing does not support future dated claims.
• Claims will be subject to existing NPI validation edits.
• MACs and CEDI will be staffed to handle increased call volume during this week.
• Test claims will receive the 277CA or 999 acknowledgement as appropriate, to confirm that the claim was accepted or rejected by Medicare.
• Test claims will be subject to all existing EDI front-end edits, including submitter authentication and NPI validation.
• Testing will not confirm claim payment or produce a remittance advice.
• MACs and CEDI will be appropriately staffed to handle increased call volume on their Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) help desk numbers, especially during the hours of 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. local MAC time, during this week.
• Your MAC will announce and promote these testing weeks via their listserv messages and their website.

For more information about acknowledgement testing, refer to the information on Novitas’s website, www.novitas-solutions.com.