ETOWAH, NC— Peter R. Meyer, of Medical Business Associates of North Carolina announced that Medical Business Associates of North Carolina is now ICD-10 ready. The industry-wide conversion to ICD-10 is scheduled to go into effect on October 1, 2014. All HIPAA-covered entities are required to use ICD-10 codes on all transactions - including claims, authorizations, referral requests, verification of benefits and eligibility.

The ICD-10 (International Classification of Disease) is a set of diagnostic and procedure codes that will be used by physician offices and hospitals throughout the nation. The ICD-10 will provide much great specificity than its’ predecessor, ICD-9. This attention to detail is one of the great benefits of the ICD-10. The new system will greatly improve everything from patient care to clinical performance to increasing the accuracy of payment and reducing claim rejection due to incorrect coding.

In addition, not being in full compliance with ICD-10 by the deadline will result in providers not being able to bill, submit, and receive payment for services and payers not being able to receive and process claims.

“This will have a monumental effect on payments for all doctors across the United States,” says Meyer. “Every computer system at every physician’s office and every program at every insurance company will need to upgrade to be compliant with the new federal law that will go into effect on October 1, 2014 or they risk major business disruption. Medical Business Associates of North Carolina is happy to announce being compliant with ICD-10 over 6 months ahead of the deadline, making the transition for our clients painless.”