Federal CMS conducts second ICD-10 end-to-end testing week in April

Wednesday, June 17, 2015 12:55 PM
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From April 27 through May 1, 2015, Medicare Fee-For-Service (FFS) health care providers, clearinghouses, and billing agencies participated in a second ICD-10 end-to-end testing week with all Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) and the Durable Medical Equipment (DME) MAC Common Electronic Data Interchange (CEDI) contractor. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was able to accommodate most volunteers, representing a broad cross-section of provider, claim, and submitter types.

The federal CMS says this second end-to-end testing week demonstrated that systems are ready to accept ICD-10 claims. Approximately 875 providers and billing companies participated, and testers submitted over 23,000 test claims. View the results here.

Overall, participants in the April end-to-end testing week were able to successfully submit ICD-10 test claims and have them processed through Medicare billing systems. The acceptance rate for April was higher than January, with an increase in test claims submitted and a decrease in the percentage of errors related to diagnosis codes. Most of the claim rejections that occurred were due to errors unrelated to ICD-9 or ICD-10.

In addition to acknowledgement testing, which may be completed at any time, a final end-to-end testing week will be held on July 20 - 24, 2015. The opportunity to volunteer for this testing week has closed. Testers who participated in the January and April end-to-end testing weeks are automatically eligible to test again in July.

Prepare Now for ICD-10 Implementation
Medicare claims with a date of service on or after October 1, 2015, will be rejected if they do not contain a valid ICD-10 code. The Medicare claims processing systems do not have the capability to accept ICD-9 codes for dates of service after Sept. 30, 2015; or accept claims that contain both ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes.

There is still time to get ready!
Even though the Oct. 1, 2015, mandatory implementation date is quickly approaching, providers still have time to prepare for ICD-10, and the federal CMS has created a number of tools and resources to help you succeed.  One tool is the “Road to 10,” aimed specifically at smaller physician practices with primers for clinical documentation, clinical scenarios, and other specialty-specific resources to help you with implementation.


Posted in: LiveWire | Practice Management | Coding and Billing
 

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