Information On ICD-10-PCS And Need For Early Compliance

By Violet Solomon


The International Classification of Disease 10th revision Procedure Coding System is normally abbreviated as ICD-10-PCS. This is a system of medical classification that helps to procedurally give coding to health interventions that the medical professionals may choose. The World Health Organization normally publishes PCS so as to track the international morbidity and the mortality statistics for comparison.

The first digit in the code is used to indicate the medical practice section which can be surgery, monitoring, measuring, administration or any other section. The next digits specify the body system, root operation, the body part, the approach used and devices used in that order. The last character (seventh) is used as a qualifying digit. The first three characters are usually so crucial and are stored in the ICD manual to help in reference.

For the purpose of reference, the first three digits are normally stored in ICD manual. A good example is a code with the first three characters as 0C0 is used to indicate a medical or surgical procedure for mouth or throat alteration. The ICD-10-PCS came as a replacement CPT code for in-patients and numbers up to 87,000 in total.

The ICD-10 captures the clinical modification component known as ICD-10-CM for clinical modification and ICD-10-PCS for the Procedure Coding System. The implementation of PCS is set to bring about up to 87,000 new codes to replace the previously used 8,660 CPT codes.

Even with the transition, a number of players are not converting to ICD-10 codes. In this group are the auto insurance companies, the legal claims and workers comp which prompts hospitals to use a mixture of ICD-9, ICD-10, ICD-10-PCS and CPT codes for the management and billing system. The hospital management system must therefore have ability and knowledge required for automatic conversion of ICD-9 codes to 10 and back, Convert CPT code to ICD-10 or nine and back. This should be done with ease, efficiency and comfort for smooth operations and transition.

As a healthcare provider in US, it is important to be fully compliant with the new coding system long before the October 1, 2014; the date of transition comes. This helps avoid the challenges associated with late attempts to comply such confusion and delays that are likely to be witnessed as there will be a rush from hospitals, surgery centers, clinics, CMS, insurance firms and State Medicaid and other players.

If you choose the option of upgrading the system as required, there are a few challenges that you need to prepare for as suggested by studies done on countries that have already converted to the new coding system. These include increased time per claim for coders, need to additional staff, concurrent processing of ICD-9, 10 and the new in-patient code, disruption of reimbursements and possible backlog of programming requests.

The implementation of ICD-10-PCS is however clouded with rumors and concerns that if confirmed to be true, could prove to be a big game changer in the industry. One of the recurring rumors is the possibility that the coding system will eliminate the so called unspecific codes that have long been used to support payable diagnosis. If confirmed, the CMS claims for code nine and zero may not get paid by insurance companies.




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