ICD-10 News: New Physician Orders FAQ Clarifies CMS Requirements
Providers Not Required to Revise Physician Orders Written Before Oct
1: New CMS FAQ
In response to questions from the provider community, CMS posted a new FAQ about physician orders written before the October 1 ICD-10 compliance date.
FAQ 12625 explains that CMS is not requiring the ordering provider to translate ICD-9 diagnosis codes to ICD-10 on orders written before October 1 for lab, radiology, or any other services.
In brief:
- Orders written before October 1 should have a ICD-9 codes.
- For orders written before October 1 for services that will continue to be delivered and billed after October 1, providers can opt to use the General Equivalence Mappings (GEMs) to translate the ICD-9 codes on the original order to ICD-10. Providers are not required to update codes to ICD-10 for orders written before October 1.
- Orders written on or after October 1 must use ICD-10.
For more guidance on claims processing and billing, please visit the CMS ICD-10 FAQ webpage.
