The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced it rejected 10.1% of Medicare fee-for-service claims submitted October 1-27, 2015, with the new ICD-10 codes.
On October 1, 2015, health systems transitioned to ICD-10.
Between October 1-27, CMS processed 4.6 million claims per day, a similar figure as compared to its historical baseline. It rejected 10.1% of them, as compared to the usual 10%.
Of the 10.1% of total claims denied during the October period, 2% were rejected due to incomplete or invalid information, 0.09% were rejected due to invalid ICD-10 codes, and 0.11% were rejected due to invalid ICD-9 codes.
CMS noted that, generally speaking, Medicare claims take several days to be processed and, once processed, Medicare is required to wait two weeks before issuing a payment. Medicaid claims can take up to 30 days to be submitted and processed by states.
As such, CMS indicated it will provide more information on the ICD-10 transition in November; we will share that news when it becomes available.
To help reduce the likelihood of having your claims denied, use our ICD 10 codes lookup tool, just one of the many PGM practice management tools designed to help providers determine correct medical procedure codes and perform other coding and billing tasks.