For a number of years now, the health system in the United States has run with a reliance on an important set of codes that help to identify different services and procedures performed by practitioners. These codes gave the medical industry a way to track illnesses and diseases in certain areas, as well as figure out insurance payouts for patients. Up until very recently, the code system that we used in the US was known as the ICD-9 set, but in October 2015, this outdated selection of codes was replaced by a more detailed and comprehensive set known as the new Medical ICD 10 Codes.

Defining The New Medical ICD-10 Codes:

ICD 10 can be described as follows: ICD stands for the International Classification of Diseases set, a range of data that contains information about everything from managing health across the country, to treating conditions and providing certain services. While healthcare professionals use these codes to track and identify different health conditions, public workers can use them to track morbidity rates, seek out trends in health, and more. Of course, insurance providers can use ICD codes to help figure out reimbursement for certain conditions. The number 10 simply refers to the version of the codes that we are now using.

The shift to the new Medical ICD 10 codes came after a significant amount of delays and disruption. The reason for this is that the updated set of codes shows a significant increase in diagnosis codes, to 69,000. Although the five-fold multiplication of codes that professionals can access obviously allows for more detailed reports and coding, it also meant that a lot of professionals needed to undergo further training in order to use ICD 10 properly.

Why We Switched To ICD-10:

The switch to ICD 10 came because the Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act required the use of ICD-10 codes for everyone covered in its programs. The coverage included everyone from hospitals, to health insurance companies and doctors who rely upon the ICD codes as a way of billing for services and diagnosing patients. Those who did not switch to ICD 10 would have had a serious problem when it came to processing claims for insurance.

It's important to note that the update in the ICD 10 code set does not have an impact on the American Medical Association terminology known as CPT which is still used for outpatient procedures. However, despite this the ICD-10 update marks a significant change in the healthcare industry as it exists across America. The difference between the old code set and the new one is monumental, moving from around 13,800 codes to 69,000 codes.

The new ICD 10 code set allows for a lot more details to be provided about medical conditions and procedures. For instance, if a person has a broken leg, the ICD-9 code would simply allow for the report of a broken leg, whereas the ICD 10 code can specify which leg was broken, where, and how it was healed.