• Medicare offers ICD-10 testing opportunities

    Now that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has declared Oct. 1, 2015, as the new compliance date for switching to the ICD-10 coding system, the agency can again turn its eyes toward making sure Medicare providers are ready. The CMS has announced its approach to preparing the Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) community, focusing on four areas:

    • CMS internal testing of its claims processing systems
    • CMS Beta testing tools available for download
    • Acknowledgement testing
    • End-to-end testing

    The first two areas are largely in CMS's control. But as for acknowledgement testing, physicians are welcome to submit acknowledgement test claims anytime up to Oct. 1, 2015. In addition, CMS is planning special week-long acknowledgement tests in November 2014, March 2015, and June 2015 to give submitters access to real-time help desk support and allow CMS to analyze testing data. Registration is not required for these virtual events, and physicians should contact their Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) for more information about acknowledgment testing.

    CMS plans to offer Medicare claims submitters the opportunity to participate in end-to-end testing with MACs and the Common Electronic Data Interchange contractor in January, April, and July 2015. As planned, approximately 2,550 volunteer submitters can participate over the course of the three testing periods. CMS says that additional details about end-to-end testing will be available soon.

    In the meantime, for more information, see Medicare Learning Network Matters Special Edition Article #SE1409 , “Medicare FFS ICD-10 Testing Approach.”

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

    Posted on Aug 14, 2014 by David Twiddy


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