On Oct. 1, the United States will transition to new International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes for medical diagnoses and inpatient hospital procedures. After this date, all Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-covered entities (including providers that do not participate in Medicare) must use ICD-10 rather than ICD-9 to bill for services. This change is significant because the United States has been using ICD-9 since 1979, and ICD-10 provides significantly more detailed coding information. Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) and Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) codes will continue to be used for outpatient, ambulatory, and office-based procedures.
Background on the ICD System
The ICD system is published by the World Health Organization (WHO). In addition to billing purposes, ICD is used as a standard diagnostic tool for epidemiology. All member states of the WHO use the ICD, which has been translated into 43 languages. ICD-10 came into use by WHO member states as early as 1994. The ICD system is currently under revision, and the release date for ICD-11 is 2017.
