ICD-10: Don’t Let Denied Claims Stick Around

“When Medicare does something, other payers usually do, too,” said Fletcher Lance, vice president and national healthcare leader at consulting firm North Highland. “Private payers won’t say they’re going to, but my hunch is that they will follow suit.”

  CMS has agreed to give a break on specificity and not deny claims as long as the submitted code is in the right family of codes. This should help a lot during the early days of the transition and if providers are lucky, private payers will offer the same grace period. Regardless of whether or not payers across the board go easy on coding mistakes in the first months of ICD-10, most providers are braced for some increase in denials. Even though coding will be slower and time will be at a premium for the first few months, it’s worth the effort to make sure refused claims are worked promptly. Read more on PhysiciansPractice.com