Major Health Insurance Plans Say They'll Be Ready for ICD-10

For many months now, the AAFP has urged family physicians to prepare for this year's Oct. 1 deadline for implementation of the ICD-10-CM code sets for outpatient diagnostic coding.

A big part of that preparation entails adequate end-to-end testing between hospitals, large health systems, independent physician practices and the health insurance companies who pay for a good deal of those health care services. In particular, it is important that the nation's largest private payers including UnitedHealthcare (UHC), Aetna, BlueCross BlueShield (BCBS) and Humana, are ready for the transition so payments to physicians are not delayed.

Thus, in early February, Laura Schmidt, an AAFP private sector advocacy strategist, sent key contacts at each of the companies a list of questions. "We are interested in confirming that (your company) will be ready to fully process claims using ICD-10 codes as of Oct. 1, 2014," wrote Schmidt, who then posed her questions on readiness.

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Source: AAFP