Track and Improve Your ICD-10 Progress

July 18, 2016

To help you improve your use of ICD-10 codes, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) offers the Next Steps Toolkit. The toolkit can help you:

  • Identify key metrics to track for accurate ICD-10 assessment
  • Manage your revenue cycle

Use these steps to analyze your ICD-10 progress:

1. Assess Your Progress

Establish a point of comparison for each KPI you would like to track. Your goal should be to compare KPIs from before and after the October 1, 2015, transition date.

CMS provides a fact sheet focused on KPIs to help you better understand how to analyze and track your ICD-10 progress. This fact sheet includes a list of KPIs that may be helpful to your practice, such as days to final bill and claims denial rate.

2. Address Your Findings

Once you have identified opportunities for improvement, you can develop a feedback system to:

  • Improve the accuracy of your clinical documentation and code selection
  • Check for any systems issues
  • Resolve system problems with payers
3. Maintain Your Progress

ICD-10 updates take place annually on October 1, following the same timeline used for ICD-9 updates. Be sure to keep all your systems and coding tools updated.

Review the General Coding Guidelines on a regular basis. Separate official guidelines are available for:

If you’re looking for a simpler version to share with colleagues or as a reference, CMS has also released a companion infographic with high-level information from the Next Steps Toolkit.

Keep Up to Date on ICD-10

Visit the CMS ICD-10 website for the latest news and official resources, including the Next Steps Toolkit, ICD-10 Quick Start Guide, and a contact list for provider Medicare and Medicaid questions. Sign up for CMS ICD-10 Email Updates and follow us on Twitter.