How difficult will it be for physicians and their staff to learn how to use ICD-10-CM in order to bill for their services?
ICD-10-CM is not a radical departure from ICD-9-CM in its organization and structure. It has a maximum of seven digits as opposed to a range of three to five digits as is found in ICD-9-CM. ICD-10-CM has significantly more codes because of the greater detail. The American Hospital Association and the American Health Information Management Association (AHA/AHIMA) have performed some field testing on ICD-10-CM and found that 16 hours of training in ICD-10-CM would be required for a coding professional to learn the entire system. However, many physician offices will not need this level of training, as they will only be using a limited range of codes. Specialists may continue their practice of preparing lists of the most frequent conditions they treat, along with the appropriate ICD-10-CM codes, which can be used to check off the more common conditions. When a physician treats a condition that is not on the list, the office staff will need to look up the diagnosis code in the ICD-10-CM cod
