ICD-10 Update: WEDI Opens Survey And Thousands Of New Codes To Be Added

By Megan Williams, contributing writer

As the first quarter of 2016 rounds out, the healthcare industry is seeing new developments in — and reactions to — last year’s ICD-10 implementation.

Survey On Post-Implementation Industry Participation Opens
WEDI has released its latest ICD-10 survey, according to Benzinga.com. The survey is intended to aid understanding in how well the industry has managed the transition since October 1 of last year. The final submission deadline for the survey is April 8, 2016 and it is open to vendors, providers, health plans, and clearinghouses that would like to share their opinions on the impact the transition has had on them. If you would like to contribute, the survey can be accessed here.

WEDI has been tracking survey information around ICD-10 since 2009 in order to better-understand a broader industry impact of the coding upgrade. According to Jim Daley, WEDI past-chair and ICD-10 Workgroup co-chair, “We anticipate this to be our final ICD-10 survey as a clear assessment of how the transition went following the implementation deadline, and how it may have impacted organizations. We also hope to identify key factors that affected the transition and identify best practices that can be applied to implementation of future industry mandates.”

5,500 New Codes To Be Added This Year
According to Healthcare IT News, an additional 5,500 codes will be added to the ICD-10 diagnostic library by October 1 of this year. The codes break down into 1,900 diagnosis codes and 3,651 hospital inpatient procedure codes. Of those codes, 97 percent will serve as updates to the cardiovascular and lower-joint body systems. Additional codes will relate to face and hand transplants as well as donor organ perfusion.

If the addition seems large, it’s for good reason — before the 2015 launch, there was a partial freeze on updates, creating a backlog of proposed changes to the new code set. The codes will be included in the hospital inpatient prospective payment system proposed rule for fiscal year 2017, expected next month. Comments are welcome until April 8.

Despite initial skepticism, ICD-10 has largely proved a smooth rollout, though long-term impact has yet to be seen.