During the week of April 26 through May 1, 2015, a second sample group of providers will have the opportunity to participate in ICD-10 end-to-end testing with Medicare administrative contractors (MACs) and the Common Electronic Data Interchange (CEDI) contractor.
As the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) notes, the goal of end-to-end testing is to demonstrate that:
- Providers and submitters are able to successfully submit claims containing ICD-10 codes to the Medicare fee-for-service claims systems
- CMS software changes made to support ICD-10 result in appropriately adjudicated claims
- Accurate remittance advices are produced
Approximately 850 volunteer submitters will be selected to participate in the April end-to-end testing. CMS intends to select volunteers representing a broad cross-section of provider, claim and submitter types. Note: Testers who are participating in the January testing are able to test again in April and July without re-applying.
To volunteer as a testing submitter:
- Volunteer forms are available on your MAC website.
- Completed volunteer forms are due January 9.
- CMS will review applications and select the group of testing submitters.
- By January 30, the MACs and CEDI will notify the volunteers selected to test and provide them with the information needed for the testing.
If selected, testers must be able to:
- Submit future-dated claims.
- Provide valid national provider identifiers, provider transaction access numbers and beneficiary health insurance claim numbers that will be used for test claims. This information will be needed by your MAC by February 20, 2015, for setup purposes; testers will be dropped if information is not provided by the deadline.
An additional opportunity for end-to-end testing will be available during the week of July 20 through 24, 2015. Any issues identified during testing will be addressed prior to ICD-10 implementation. CMS notes that educational materials will be developed for providers and submitters based on the testing results.