Final Approval: Partial Freeze for ICD-9 CM and ICD-10

The coming year i.e. 2013 will not have new diagnosis code changes so providers can breathe a sigh of relief. There will be a partial freeze of the ICD-9 procedure codes and ICD-10 (ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS) codes before the implementation of ICD-10 on October 1, 2014 by the ICD-9 CM Coordination and Maintenance Committee. There was also significant support for this partial freeze. The partial freeze on medical ICD codes is being implemented in the following ways:

• ·         On October 1, 2011 the last regular as well as annual update for both ICD-9 procedure codes and ICD-10 code sets was made.
• ·         There were partial code updates for both ICD-9 codes and ICD-10 code sets to capture new technologies and diseases as made essential by section 503(a) of Pub. L. 108-173 on October 1, 2012.
• ·         There will be only few code updates to ICD-10 code sets to capture new technologies and diagnoses as made mandate by section 503(a) of Pub. L. 108-173 on October 1, 2014. For ICD-9 codes there will be no updates as they will no longer be used for reporting.
• ·         ICD-10 codes will be regularly updated from October 1, 2014.

During this time of partial freeze the ICD-9-CM Coordination and Maintenance Committee will regularly meet twice a year. Also the public will be asked to participate in these meetings and their views will be taken on whether or not the requests for new diagnosis and ICD 9procedure codes need to be created based on the importance of the need to capture a new technology or disease. When the partial freeze finally ends, the code requests that did not meet the criteria will be taken into consideration to be implemented within ICD-10 on or after October 1, 2014.

The medical ICD codes discussed at the September 15^th and 16^th, 2010 and March 9^th and 10^th, 2011 by the ICD-9 CM Coordination and Maintenance Committee’s meeting were taken into consideration for implementation on 1^st October, 2011.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and CMS have not suggested any official changes to the ICD-9 codes and ICD-10 CM codes for the year 2013. The 2013 payment rule which has been proposed for hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems (IPPS) as well as long-term care hospitals is the one where CMS has announced some changes for the diagnosis code set, which also includes, “that for the year 2013, due to the code freeze or for new technology no changes were made for ICD-9 codes or coding system. Similarly, we can come to the conclusion that there will be no new, revised or deleted diagnosis and procedure codes that are usually announced in Tables 6A (new diagnosis codes), 6B (new procedure codes), 6C (invalid diagnosis codes), 6D (invalid procedure codes), 6E (revised diagnosis code titles) and 6F (revised procedure codes).”