This installment in Family Practice Management’s series on ICD-10 documentation and coding will focus on the minor trauma family physicians tend to see in an office setting – knee injuries, wrist fractures, bruised fingers, etc. More complicated injuries seen in some rural practice settings, urgent care facilities, or emergency departments are beyond the scope of this article. Injuries are typi...

By October 1, 2013, entities covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), including health plans, healthcare clearinghouses, and healthcare providers, will be required to use ICD-10 for HIPAA-covered transactions that contain any diagnoses or hospital inpatient procedures.1 Although it is impossible to quantify the impact at this time because of too many variables...

The deadline for replacing International Classification of Diseases, 9th edition (ICD-9) code sets with the newer ICD-10 code sets, used for the reporting of medical diagnoses and inpatient hospital procedures, was recently updated to occur at a date no sooner than October 1, 2015; with October 1, 2015 being the likely implementation date. The transition to ICD-10 is mandatory for all entities ...