Technology Article Review

ICD-10: Disease Tracking

Brennan Barger

HCS/212

August 17th, 2015

Alphus Bishop/University of Phoenix

ICD-10: Disease Tracking

The health care industry uses the International Classification of Diseases, volume 9, when reporting a patient’s diagnosis on either a 1500 outpatient claim form or a UB-04 inpatient claim form; also known as ICD-9. This ICD-9 platform was first started 34 years ago. Today, healthcare is analyzed from every aspect and this ICD-9 platform is limiting how much we can report and research. The ICD-9 system only has 14,025 diagnosis codes. Medical providers have to bill, often with uncertainty, a diagnosis code that may not completely fit the patients condition. This leads to irregularities in the patient’s medical record, audits, and errors with data reporting. On October 1st, 2015, this will change when ICD-10 rolls out with thousands of enhancements.

Originally, the ICD-10 compliance date was scheduled for October 1st, 2014, but that was pushed back by Congress. Now that the date is officially set in stone, providers are gearing up for this change. According to CMS, “The transition to ICD-10 is required for everyone covered by the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPPA)” (Cms.gov). While the benefits out weight the negatives, the changes will be monumental and challenging to everyone in the health care industry. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services along with the Department of Health and Human Services are working with providers to assure the change goes as smoothly as possible by issuing monthly letters and doing educational seminars. The addition of ICD-10 will add 68,000 new diagnoses that will significantly affect how disease tracking is done.

Before, if a provider wanted to report that the patient had a displaced fracture of shaft in his or her right femur, they would have to bill an ICD-9 code such as “821.11” which represents “open fracture of shaft of femur”. With...