Coding ICD-10 may be easier than getting claims paid

Here are physician quotes after week two of the ICD-10 coding transition taken from Medical Economics' ICD-10 Diary project.

"What a pain to try and remember everything when my job is actually to take care of our patients, not spend time looking up codes, etc."

Pamela J. Miller, OD
Optometrist
Highland, California

" We received our first confirmation that a payer has successfully accepted our ICD-10 billing!"
 

Maria Chandler, MD, MBA
Pediatrician
Long Beach, California

"Since we are only two weeks into this so far, we have not seen any billing issues but I continue to hold my breath on that one …"

Thomas A Marsland, MD
Oncologist
Orange Park, Florida

"The EHR has responded that the issues with the ICD-10 codes were on the practice management side. Apparently all [my vendor's] practice management system users are having this issue."

Mohammad Rafieetary, OD, FAAO
Optometrist
Germantown, Tennessee

"With ICD-9, if an 11-year-old child got a flu vaccine, an HPV vaccine, a DTaP, and a meningococcal vaccine, 4 different ICD codes were needed. With ICD 10, there is only one:  Z23."

Terry Brenneman, MD
Pediatrician
Raleigh, North Carolina

" Every code I've needed has been very similar to the ICD-9 predecessor. It's still too soon to know about reimbursements!"

Melanie Denton, MD
Optometrist
Charlotte, North Carolina

"I'm not sure if I was over prepared [for ICD-10], or it's easier than I thought it would be."

George G. Ellis, Jr., MD
Internist
Youngstown, Ohio

"So far, no claims have been rejected outright, but our billing staff tells me that we won't know for sure how the downstream processes are working for several weeks when we might start seeing rejections."

Michael Boland, MD
Ophthalmologist
Baltimore, Maryland