2015 ICD-10 Testing Options

All Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) have announced the availability of ICD-10 testing.

The next national ICD-10 acknowledgement testing week is June 1-5, 2015. Acknowledgement testing does not require advance sign up or “selection”. Noridian, the MAC for a number of states, has a wealth of information on ICD-10 testing at this link; they note:

Providers, billing services, and clearinghouses [direct submitters] are welcome to submit acknowledgement test claims anytime up to the October 1, 2015, implementation date. In addition, special acknowledgement testing weeks will give submitters access to real-time help desk support and allow CMS to analyze testing data. Registration is not required for these weeks …

Each MAC has issued instructions on the ICD-10 sections of their webpage. For example, Noridian notes the following from the same link above:

This testing week will give trading partners access to the Medicare Administrative Contractor’s (MACs) and Common Electronic Data Interchange (CEDI) for testing with real-time help desk support …

Test claims with ICD-10 codes must be submitted with current dates of service (i.e. June 1, 2015 through June 5, 2015), since testing does not support future dated claims. Test claims will be subject to all existing EDI front-end edits including Submitter authentication and NPI validation. Test claims will receive the 277CA or 999 acknowledgement as appropriate, to confirm that the claim was accepted or rejected in the system. Testing will not confirm claim payment or produce remittance advice.

There are other instructions as well that submitters need to know; the MAC websites have the information needed.

Additionally, there are two “end-to-end” testing weeks coming up; however, they required signing up in advance and the deadline was April 17, 2015. Those weeks are 4/27-5/1/2015 and 7/20-24/2015.

We encourage direct submitters to Medicare contractors to take the opportunity to test claims using the new coding system to ensure proper cash-flow and fewer claims problems once the ICD-10 “go-live” date of October 1, 2015 is here.

As always, if you need assistance with coding or reimbursement, or desire a review of your charts or current fees, Corcoran Consulting Group can help. Visit the website area to learn more about our ICD-10 courses.

www.corcoranccg.com (800) 399-6565