While the CMS says Medicare contractors are ready to switch their claims processing to ICD-10 coding on Oct. 1, about half of state workers' compensation claims payment systems are taking a pass.
According to the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange, a not-for-profit healthcare industry trade group that promotes computerization in healthcare, only 21 states have adopted the Oct. 1, 2015 deadline for switching over their workers' comp systems to processing physician and hospital inpatient and outpatient claims to ICD-10. Another four states have pending ICD-10 regulations for workers' comp claims.
Government regulations require ICD-10 conversion for Medicare and Medicaid covered entities such as hospitals, physicians and other providers. But the rules don't apply to state workers' comp programs.
Devin Jopp, president and CEO of WEDI, said some states will voluntarily switch their workers' comp programs from ICD-9 to ICD-10 on Oct. 1, but others will not.
Meanwhile, WEDI also released a list of websites for state Medicaid programs where providers can check for ICD-10 updates. State Medicaid programs must switch to ICD-10.
WEDI isn't tracking their progress. “I don't know what I don't know with Medicaid,” Jopp said. “I'd hate to speculate where states are.”
On Thursday, the CMS reported 87% of organizations passed its third round of end-to-end testing of Medicare claims. It pronounced provider claims processors are ready for Oct. 1.
