Advocacy & Practice Updates — Advocacy & Practice
Register for ICD-10 Testing Week: March 3-7
The deadline for practices to adopt the ICD-10-CM outpatient diagnostic coding set is October 1. ICD-10-CM has many more vitreoretinal diagnostic codes than ICD-9-CM, largely due to additional ICD-10-CM codes for specifying laterality and the type of diabetic retinopathy.
To help physicians and practice staff prepare for this transition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will conduct a national testing week March 3-7 for current direct submitters (providers and clearinghouses).
This testing week will give practices access to Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) and the Common Electronic Data Interchange (CEDI) for testing with real-time help desk support.
Registration is required. Visit your MAC's website for registration information. You can locate your MAC in the CMS directory.
What to expect during testing:
- Test claims with ICD-10 codes must be submitted with current dates of service (ie, October 1, 2013 through March 3, 2014), since testing does not support future dated claims.
- All ICD-10 test files must be submitted with a “T” in the ISA15 Test/Production Indicator.
- Test claims will receive the 277CA or 999 acknowledgement as appropriate, to confirm that the claim was accepted or rejected in the system.
- Testing will not confirm claim payment or produce remittance advice.
- MACs and the CEDI will be staffed to handle increased call volume during this week.
More information about the testing week is available from the CMS Medicare Learning Network.
Published February 2014