ICD 10 Compliant

Our Commitment to ICD 10

For the past several decades the US healthcare system has utilized a set of diagnoses and procedure codes, called ICD-9 codes, to report diagnoses and in-patient procedures. On October 1, 2015, this ICD-9 code set was replaced by the much more detailed ICD-10 code set.

ICD stands for the International Classification of Diseases, and its codes hold necessary information about epidemiology, managing health, and treating conditions. Healthcare professionals use ICD codes to record and identify health conditions. Public health workers can use the recording of ICD codes to see trends in health, and track morbidity and mortality. Insurers use ICD codes to classify conditions and determine reimbursement.

The transition to ICD-10 reflected a five-fold increase in the number of diagnosis codes, to roughly 69,000 codes.  The transition to ICD-10 codes was required for anyone covered by the Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act (HIPAA)—this includes medical practices, hospitals, nursing communities and health insurance companies, all of whom rely on these ICD-10 codes for diagnosing patients and billing for necessary services.

Why is ICD-10 important to you?

At an earlier time, a clinician generally wrote about a patient’s condition and submitted for reimbursement. Rarely did anyone, except the clinician, know specifically what the patient’s issue WAS, how to manage it, or how to track it—is this condition a trend? Does it pose a regional or national concern? The evolution to ICD-10 meets many exciting needs, primarily those of public health and public policy officials to identify and track our healthcare conditions and respond appropriately. While other clinicians and practices are balking over ICD-10, Five Star Physicians embraces and supports these efforts as an effective practice to improve care and control costs. It is a part of our on-going employee training, and supported through our electronic record system. We even maintain specialists to work with our clinicians, ensuring correct coding utilization. While you may only see our clinicians in your community, there is an entire team behind them, all focused on delivering optimal care.