Acceptance rates during the November ICD-10 acknowledgement testing week improved to 87 percent, according to a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announcement.
During the week, providers submitted almost 13,700 claims to the Medicare Fee-For-Service (FFS) claims systems. Overall, 76 percent of total test claims were accepted. For acknowledgement testing, providers receive electronic confirmation that the claims were accepted.
More than 500 providers, suppliers, billing companies and clearinghouses participated.
CMS verified that the test claims' diagnosis code matched the date of service, the a National Provider Identifier (NPI) was valid for the submitter ID used for testing, and an ICD-10 companion qualifier code allowed the claims to be processed. In many cases, testers intentionally included errors to make sure that incorrect claims would be rejected.
The next acknowledgement testing weeks will be March 2-6, and June 1-5, although providers may submit acknowledgement test claims anytime up to the Oct. 1, 2015, implementation date.
CMS earlier published guidance on testing, including an explanation of the difference between acknowledgement testing and end-to-end testing.
"While acknowledgement testing is open to all electronic submitters, end-to-end testing is limited to a smaller sample of submitters who volunteer and are selected for testing," CMS said.
End-to-end testing will run from April 26-May 1; other testing dates include Jan. 26-30 and July 20-24. A total of 850 volunteer submitters will participate in the April testing, which also will include claims clearinghouses that submit claims for multiple providers.
Next year will be "the year of education and training" for ICD-10, predicts Deborah Grider, a healthcare consultant and current president of the Indiana Health Information Management Association.
"Make your New Year's resolution to stay the course and get ready for ICD-10," Grider says in a post for ICD10monitor.com.
Meanwhile, House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders have pledged to hold a hearing this year focusing on ICD-10 implementation to address the concerns of everyone affected.
To learn more:
- read the announcement