Medical Billing and Coding Comparison of ICD 9 vs ICD 10

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Q: Hello. I just started the CPC program with ICD-9 so I will be testing on ICD-9. With ICD-10 coming out, should I be concerned about that or just continue to focus on ICD-9? Thanks, Sue

Medical Billing and Coding Comparison of ICD 9 vs ICD 10 – Video

A: Sue, just focus on 9. Don’t worry about 10. 10 is very easy. I like to explain it in a way that it’s easy for just about everybody to understand. Think of ICD-9 as your five-speed car and think of ICD-9 as an automatic. If you learned how to drive an automatic then you’re good to go, but you won’t be able to drive a five-speed car easily. You could still learn it, I mean still driving and yet there’s extra things to it, it’s harder. ICD-9 is actually harder than ICD-10.

ICD-10 is very specific and little guesswork in it, some guesswork in ICD-9 because there’s just not enough numbers to go around. So, if you learn in ICD-9, if you learn how to drive a car that’s a five-speed and then someone gives you a standard transition, you don’t have any problem driving that. So, you’re not going to have problems with ICD-10. There are tons of places to get education; of course, we like to think we’re the best. But it is not so different. The guidelines are pretty much the same. You look everything up in the index and then go to the tabular the same. Again, you’ll love ICD-10 when you get ready to switch, it’s not scary. And we’re here to help you.