On January 15, 2009 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced final regulations to adopt ICD-10 code sets.  According to HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt:  “The greatly expanded ICD-10 code sets will fully support quality reporting, pay-for-performance, bio-surveillance, and other critical activities."

ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes will replace ICD-9-CM codes used in all healthcare settings, while ICD-10-PCS will replace ICD-9-CM procedure codes for hospital inpatient procedures.  CPT codes will continue to be reported for procedures in all other settings.  The implementation date for all healthcare facilities is October 1, 2013.

Adoption of the ICD-10 code sets is expected to:

• Support Medicare’s value-based purchasing initiative and antifraud and abuse activities by accurately defining services and providing specific diagnosis and treatment information;
• Provide the precision needed for a number of emerging uses such as pay-for-performance and biosurveillance. Biosurveillance is the automated monitoring of information sources that may help in detecting an emerging epidemic, whether naturally occurring or as the result of bioterrorism;
• Support comprehensive reporting of quality data;
• Ensure more accurate payments for new procedures, fewer rejected claims, improved disease management, and harmonization of disease monitoring and reporting worldwide; and
• Allow the United States to compare its data with international data to track the incidence and spread of disease and treatment outcomes because the United States is one of the few developed countries not using ICD-10.