That means you can kiss your commercial insurance payments goodbye if you apply the same coding flexibility Medicare will offer during the grace period to your private payers. Plus, this grace period is only for Medicare claims. Here’s the cold, hard truth: if you don’t learn how to code properly before October 1, you probably won’t know how to do so by the time the grace period is over. During that period, even if you don’t receive claim denials due to not coding to the highest degree of specificity (as long as you submit codes from the correct family), not making an effort to select specific codes will only delay the inevitable.

And just as cat-napping amid semi trucks might give you a feeling of pseudo-rest, the 12-month grace period announced by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) and the American Medical Association (AMA) might give you a false sense of security. While a quick nap at a truck stop might sound like a great idea, it’s no substitute for a solid night’s sleep. Is your ICD-10 trip a smooth one? Have you taken one too many pit-stops along the way and can’t seem to figure out how to get back on the road to a successful coding transition? Don’t worry grab a snack and pull out your map because we still have some serious mileage to cover. But the countdown is on, and with just a shade under six weeks to go, we don’t have much more time to prepare. With the ICD-10 transition approaching, you might feel like a kid again-trapped in the back of the family car, wondering when you’ll finally arrive at your destination.

Instacode icd-10