The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, as part of its “Road to 10: The Small Physician Practice’s Route to ICD-10,” offers a series of valuable, free ICD-10 resources for orthopedic surgeons.
These resources include the following:
1. Common orthopedics codes. An illustrative sample of high-impact diagnosis codes related to common conditions that you may encounter. Several of the examples demonstrate the increased specificity available in ICD-10.
2. Orthopedics clinical documentation primer. This document introduces ICD-10 clinical documentation changes for common orthopedic conditions. It highlights the increased specificity and laterality requirements and provides brief descriptions of the related documentation nuances significant to an orthopedic practice.
3. Orthopedics clinical scenarios. Sample, outpatient-focused scenarios to illustrate specific ICD-10 clinical documentation considerations. These examples underscore the importance of including the proper level of detail needed to support the selection of the most appropriate ICD-10 diagnosis codes based on a patient’s circumstance.
4. Orthopedics ICD-10 webinar. Led by Joseph Nichols, MD, board-certified orthopedic surgeon and co-chair of the WEDI Translation and Coding Work Group, learn about ICD-10 documentation and coding concepts, including the clinical impact of ICD-10 and orthopedi-specific documentation requirements, changes and new concepts.
5. Other orthopedic ICD-10 training resources. These include tools intended to help with documentation training for physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and other staff who document in the patient medical record; coding training for staff members who work with codes on a regular basis; and overview training for staff members engaged in administrative functions.
The transition to ICD-10 is expected to cause significant disruptions in payments as well as coding and billing processes. To reduce the negative impact of the transition to ICD-10 on your organization, consider outsourcing your billing to a leading orthopedic billing company like PGM billing. For the past 30 years, PGM has been providing practice and ASC billing services to orthopedic surgeons nationwide. Contact PGM today to find out how they can help ensure you capture the reimbursement you organization rightly earns in a timely manner.