CMS schedules three testing weeks for ICD-10

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has announced that it will hold three separate testing weeks to allow trading partners (including physician practices, hospitals and other healthcare providers) the opportunity to try out submitting claims using International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10) codes.

The testing is “acknowledgement testing,” which means that providers submitting ICD-10 coded test claims to the Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) for their region will only receive the 277CA or 999 acknowledgement code back indicated that the claim was either accepted or rejected by Medicare. They will not know if their claim would actually be paid as submitted.

The testing weeks selected by CMS are:

• November 17 – 21, 2014
• March 2 – 6, 2015
• June 1 – 5, 2015

In a MLN Matters announcement, CMS noted that submitters may acknowledgement test ICD-10 claims at any time between now and Oct. 1, 2015, the date of ICD-10 coding implementation. However, the special testing weeks are designed to generate increased awareness and interest in testing. In addition, during these times, the MACs have committed to staffing for extra call volume to help resolve problems encountered in the testing.

CMS reminded those thinking about participating in one of the test weeks that the test claims with ICD-10 codes must be submitted with current dates of service. The claims processing system will reject claims with dates in the future, such as Oct. 1, 2015, the official implementation date. In addition, claims will be subject to all existing electronic data interchange front-end edits, including submitter authentication and national provider identifier (NPI) validation edits. Therefore, test claims should use real identifier numbers. 

The MACs are charged with promoting the testing weeks and the results of the testing will be posted on the CMS and MACs websites.