With the ICD 10 deadline fast approaching, are you ready for it?
First, let’s summarize what ICD 10 is. The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is a standard system for classifying diseases. This is published by the World Health Organization (WHO). The system uses coding to classify and identify diseases and health problems. ICD 10 is not just a simple upgrade to the ICD 9 system, which is currently being phased out, it differs from the ICD 9 system in that it is more specific, has a higher number of codes (from 15,000 codes to 150,000 codes), uses longer codes , as well as other variations.
I mentioned the ICD 10 deadline earlier, let’s talk about that. The World Health Organization has set a deadline for all physicians to have fully implemented the ICD 10 system. As you can imagine, this is a huge task and it is not something that can happen overnight. Since the ICD 10 coding system is much more complex, for any professional to adapt to that level of change, it is necessary to allow enough time for the system to take effect. In other words, to meet the deadline, you must have already started or be ready to start as soon as possible.
The deadline for ICD 10 is set in October 2014. This deadline has already been delayed once and officials say it will not be delayed any further. The delay in the deadline was due to several problems, one of the most important being that there was a great lack of qualified coders to make this system change. Medical workers must also be trained in the use of ICD 10, so the industry will need more coders to compensate for decreased productivity while training takes place.
As we know, October 2014 is not too far from now, so professional medical coders are in high demand right now, and will remain so at least until this deadline. This means that if you were considering learning ICD 10 encoding, now would be a great time to do so, as demand is extremely high and will continue to be for most of 2014 and beyond. This demand naturally means that it will result in a better salary and a more prosperous career. Before the ICD 10 coding system began to be implemented, medical coding and billing jobs were estimated to cover one-fifth of the entire medical profession. Now that the ICD 10 coding system is being implemented, this number is expected to grow substantially. This is because the ICD 10 coding system is much more time consuming and complicated.
To summarize this article, ICD 10 is the future of medical coding, and it is vital that anyone in the medical field know about it. It is even more essential that medical coders and potential medical coders seize this opportunity to advance their career and learn the ICD 10 system as soon as possible to make their mark before anyone else. The effort and time you put in now will make a huge and positive change for you and your patients once you start ICD 10.
