As most of you are aware, Congress this year passed a law which prohibited the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) from implementing the ICD-10 prior to October 1, 2015. On 7/4/2014, the Office of the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a notice in the Federal Register changing the required implementation date from October 1, 2014 to October 1, 2015.
For many of you, this change is of minimal importance. If your software product is ready to go, as is SOS Office Manager, then so are you. For some of you, that is not the case.
Any behavioral health organization who does not have a clinician or a staff person trained to code using ICD-10 codes rather than ICD-9 codes, should begin to explore what education should occur prior to October 1, 2015. CMS has an entire portion of their web site devoted to information and tools that all organizations may use free of charge to prepare for ICD-10 implementation. There are resources including documents and videos and tools aimed at developing and implementing a plan of action. There are links to the General Equivalency Mappings (GEMs) for 2014 and 2015. There is every bit of information an organization could possibly need to make this transition.
Please don’t be caught off-guard. The new deadline is 14 months away. If your current staff are all trained and prepared, but half of them leave before October 2015, you will need to re-train. If you are now using DSM5 codes and do not understand the relationship between DSM and ICD10, you will need to clarify this information, for yourself and your staff.
Just subscribe to the ICD-10 info notices from CMS and you will be able to stay on top of any information and changes as they occur!
