ICD-10 updates twice a year and Post COVID-19 code

ICD-10 may be moving to biannual updates —April 1, in addition to October 1—depending on public comment . CMS and CDC jointly announced that the possibility of a regular April 1 update to ICD-10 is under consideration. CMS is taking the lead in the discussion and collection of public comment.

By law, the current use of April 1 for an interim implementation of new ICD-10 codes is highly constrained—emerging diseases and qualifying NTAP (New Technology Add-on Payment) proposals only. As far as I know we have never had an April 1 update for procedure codes, and in 2020 the “scheduled” April 1 update, one diagnosis code to capture the use of vaping, was all but forgotten in the “unscheduled” introduction of new COVID-19 codes and the ensuing year-long scramble to update, and update, and update. We have discovered that a pandemic does not wait for arbitrary dates like April 1 and October 1—emergency updates happen when they happen. So, the idea under discussion is to broaden the use of an April 1 update to include, for example, new codes discussed at the September C&M meeting.

More COVID-19 ICD-10-CM/PCS Codes Proposed

Both diagnosis and procedure codes for COVID-related conditions and treatment were proposed. Instead of the previous emergency updates, this time they are proposed for October 1, 2021 implementation.

A new diagnosis code, U09.9 Post COVID-19 condition, unspecified, is proposed to establish a link in the medical record between COVID-19 and conditions that persist after the person no longer has COVID-19. Examples given are chronic respiratory failure, loss of taste or loss of smell. The persistent condition is coded first, followed by the proposed new code.

Four new procedure codes are proposed for the intravenous infusion of two additional substances that may be administered to patients hospitalized for treatment of COVID-19. The substances are Hyperimmune Globulin and High-Dose Intravenous Immune Globulin. Brand names such as Octagam 10%, GAMUNEX-C and common acronyms (HIG, hdIVIG), are proposed for the PCS Substance Key and Index, to help coders with code assignment.

Reference:

https://www.3mhisinsideangle.com/blog-post/