Do coders find it harder to code with ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS?
In the American Hospital Association/American Health Information Management Association (AHA/AHIMA) ICD-10-CM Field Testing Project, 76% of the participants stated that ICD-10-CM is an improvement over ICD-9-CM. The test results found that ICD-10-CM codes can be applied to today’s medical records in a variety of health care settings without having to change documentation practices, although improved documentation would result in higher coding specificity and, therefore, higher data quality in some cases. To access the ICD-10-CM Field Testing Project Report on Findings, click here. In the findings from the Clinical Data Abstraction Centers (CDAC) testing of ICD-10-Procedure Coding System (PCS), it was identified as more complete than ICD-9-CM with greater specificity, easy to expand, and easier to analyze because of its multiaxial structure. CDAC testing also found that standardized terminology makes it easier to use once the coder has initial training, and having all terms defined make
