Date of service decides whether you use ICD-9 or ICD-10

With the Oct. 1, 2014, deadline for implementing ICD-10 coding approaching, you may be wondering how you will treat a claim that you submit in October 2014 for a service that your practice provided in September 2014? Do you use ICD-10 because the claim is filed after the implementation deadline, or do you use ICD-9 because the service was provided before the deadline?

The short answer is that the date of service determines which code set you use. Thus, even if you submit your claim on or after the ICD-10 deadline, if the date of service was before Oct. 1, 2014, you will use ICD-9 to code the diagnosis. Conversely, for dates of service on or after Oct. 1, 2014, you will use ICD-10. That means you need to make sure that your systems, third-party vendors, billing services, and clearinghouses can handle both ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes for claims filed in the months following Oct. 1, 2014.

While some trading partners may allow that ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes be submitted on the same claim when dates of service span the compliance date, not all of them will. This may mean splitting services into two claims: one claim with ICD-9 diagnosis codes for services provided before Oct. 1, 2014, and another claim with ICD-10 diagnosis codes for services provided on or after Oct. 1, 2014. Check your trading partner agreements.

For additional help, visit the American Academy of Family Physicians website for tools and articles to assist your practice with the preparation and change to this new system. You can also find news and resources on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) ICD-10 website, which also includes the ICD-10 continuing medical education modules developed by CMS in partnership with Medscape.

– Kent Moore, Senior Strategist for Physician Payment for the American Academy of Family Physicians