ICD-10 is coming; are you ready?

On Oct. 1, the U.S. health care system will begin to use the International Classification of Diseases 10th edition ─ it replaces the decades-old 9th edition. This represents the largest change in coding since the revision of evaluation and management CPT codes in 1992.According to a blog post by William D. Rogers, MD, FACEP, ICD-10 Ombudsman at CMS, ICD-10 promises to help physicians and other health care providers better coordinate care, keep more detailed records and more accurately define patients’ clinical conditions, as well as implement new payment methods. It will also allow for data comparisons between regions of the United States and the rest of the world, and may help improve clinical and surgical practice guidelines across the entire spectrum of health care services.