News Feature | February 27, 2015

First Week Of ICD-10 End-to-End Testing ‘Successful'

Katie Wike

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

CMS Reports ICD-10 End-To-End Testing Results

CMS reports 81 percent of the 15,000 test claims submitted this week were accepted.

The first week of end-to-end testing for ICD-10 is complete and the results are being called “successful” with 81 percent of the 15,000 test claims CMS received from 661 providers were accepted.

According to Fierce Health IT, 3 percent of the rejected claims were due to an invalid submission of an ICD-9 diagnosis or procedure code. An additional 3 percent were rejected because of an ICD-10 diagnosis or procedure code and 13 percent were rejected because of non-ICD-10 errors.

A CMS report on the week’s activity found that of the test claims, 56 percent were professional, 38 percent were institutional, and 6 percent were supplier. “Testing demonstrated that CMS systems are ready to accept ICD-10 claims,” notes CMS.

“Testing allows us to identify areas of improvement, and we will work with outside entities and stakeholders to improve those very small deficiencies identified. And we will continue to do testing, especially in those areas we identify as needing improvement,” explains CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavernier in a blog post.

Tavernier also said CMS wants to be clear that ICD-9 must be used for all services provided before the October 1 deadline and ICD-10 must be used for services provided on or after October 1. “That means ICD-10 can be used only for test purposes before October 1. And, only ICD-10 can be used for doctor’s visits and other services that happen on or after October 1. ICD-9 cannot be used to bill for services provided on or after October 1,” says Tavernier. “This rule applies no matter when the claim is submitted, so claims submitted after October 1, 2015, for services provided before that date must use ICD-9 codes.”