Medical Billing and the New ICD 11

Medical billing and coding have gone through several evolutions over the years. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that ICD coding is implemented globally to assist in the diagnosis of diseases. The purpose of the ICD is to enable every country to become synchronized with the most current research and medical knowledge as it concentrates resources to track illnesses and ultimately treat them.

In recent times, the medical industry had standards in place known as ICD 10 (International Classification of Diseases). It does not seem very long since it was released, and when it was, the entire industry was disrupted. Most recently, a new set of coding standards known as ICD 11 are being put into place.

About ICD 10 and ICD 11

When ICD 10 was released, over 68,000 codes had to be assimilated into the framework of the existing coding standards. While it is challenging to adapt to this new system, workers are still trying to catch up with the coding standards of ICD 10. On the heels of this comes the introduction of ICD 11.

In the United States, a version known as ICD 10-CM has been in place since 1990, although it took until 2015 before the system was fully integrated. Beginning in 2007, ICD-11 was being developed to replace the existing ICD-10 model. The integrations of the ICD models occur over a very long period of time.

These systems must be fully developed and evolve over time. It may seem confusing and unnecessary but despite the elaborate implementation of these systems, they are very necessary to achieve the goals of the World Health Organization.

Medical billing ICD-11 builds upon the framework involved in ICD-10 and will take a lot of long-term hard work to fully implement. It will most likely be simultaneously replaced by another ICD version that will be developed next. The ICD 11 version was released on June 18th, 2018 but it will be some time before it is fully operational and officially adopted. There is no set date for the assimilation between systems as development is highly complicated.

Implementation of the systems

The ICD roll out will take some time to accomplish as a certain amount of feedback will be necessary in order to accomplish its implementation. Historically, the United States has taken even more time than the World Health Organization to fully integrate a new system, and when being introduced, the ICD system is usually modified somewhat for the needs of the American Medical system.

Although it will take a lot of work and growing pains, the changeover from ICD 10 to ICD 11 will encompass a great deal of change and many steps need to be taken to achieve this transition. Those who use the ICD system need to be kept in the loop and aware of changes in coding that will occur. Staying informed on the release dates for the new ICD-11 and gaining access to materials required for training in the new system are imperative to adapting to the needs of the new ICD-11.

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Also, check out our article on when we first reported on ICD-11 in 2018 and Gaming Disorder will be recognized in ICD-11.