HHS has released the final rule for implementing the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, or ICD-10, code sets, which pushes back the compliance deadline from October 1, 2011, in the proposed rule to October 1, 2013, in the final rule.

ICD-10 is made of two components: ICD-10-CM which is the diagnostic classification system and ICD-10-PCS which is the procedural classification system.  Together, ICD-10-CM and PCS have more than 100,000 additional codes as compared to ICD-9-CM.  The ICD-10 codes provide greater detail and will provide the opportunity to improve the capture of information about the increasingly complex delivery of healthcare.  This, in turn, could help in quality measurement and patient safety improvement activities, pay-for-performance initiatives, improved public health and bio-terrorism monitoring, more accurate reimbursement rates, etc.

Over the next couple months, HHIC will aide hospitals to best support the transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10.