Move over ICD-10, here comes ICD-11

ICD-9, ICD-10, and now the ICD-11.  What are they?  Who uses them?  And what are they for?
Good questions...
Right now here in the US we us the ICD-9.  It stands for International Classification of Diseases.  It is the book full of thousands and thousands of codes for every disease, condition, pre-condition, injury, post-injury, or medical circumstance that you could imagine.  (For example:  pedestrian vs. cow... no kidding!).  We use the codes that are assigned to these medical conditions for billing on our claims.  The ICD-10 actually came out a few years ago, but we (as a country) are still using the ICD-9.  Why?  My inquiring brain could not fathom this, so I did some checking.  What I found was interesting.
The ICD-9 was not even created here in the US.  It was created by the WHO, World Health Organization, to track global epidemics such as pandemic flus, Ebola Virus, and AIDS.  Other countries use it for reporting purposes, whereas we use it for actual billing.  Here in the US, the Department of Health and Human Services actually owns the copyright for the printed materials that we use, but the content is available worldwide.
Since we use it for billing, conversion to the ICD-10 is massive.  To complicate things even further, the new ICD-10 will also contain procedure codes for the first time (outpatient).  Conversion on a national level is massive and has proven to be so daunting that we have yet to have it implemnted.
So, since the ICD-11 is slated to be out in 2015 for use globally, and we have not yet implemented the ICD-10... I say we just hold off a few more years and jump straight to the ICD-11.  What could it hurt?  We've held on to the ICD-9 for so long, what's a couple more years?
It gives new meaning to the phrase "that's the way we've always done it."

Until next time,

Thanks,
Lori

http://www.sinclairinkspot.com/
Loretta Sinclair
Author, Medical Billing, Coding and Reimbursement
How to Run Your Own Home Medical Billing Service
Annotation Press, 2007, 2008
Available in print and on Kindle

Medical Billing, Coding, and Reimbursement
Supplemental Workbook
Sinclair Publications
copyright 2009

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