Save the date: A new law has deferred implementation of the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases-10 (the United States will use the ICD-10-CM version) diagnostic codes for insurance reimbursement from Oct. 1 of this year to Oct. 1, 2015.
President Barack Obama signed the law, called the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014, in April.
Until the new 2015 deadline, practitioners should continue to use the ICD-9-CM for coding and billing — these codes are familiar to psychologists as the DSM-IV was "harmonized" with the ICD-9-CM. Both ICD-9-CM and ICD-10-CM codes are in the DSM-5.
APA is encouraging practitioners to use the extra year to learn the ICD-10-CM codes to get ahead of the switch. ICD-10-CM differs significantly from ICD-9-CM: It has more codes and a new alphanumeric coding system that replaces the former numeric system. An APA book, "A Primer for ICD-10-CM-Users: Psychological and Behavioral Conditions," also offer guidance on the revised ICD.
The new law also averted the 24 percent Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) cut in Medicare provider payments that had been scheduled to take effect on April 1. The law postpones the cut until March 31, 2015, and extends a 0.5 percent Medicare reimbursement rate increase through Dec. 31 of this year. The APA Practice Organization is working to gain permanent repeal of the SGR formula and advocate for a more reasonable cost containment mechanism.
For questions or more information on the ICD-10-CM transition, email APA's Practice Directorate. Also, see ICD implementation: Aim for the moving target in this issue.
— Jamie Chamberlin