ICD-9-CM to ICD-10-CM Codes: What? Why? How?

The wound care industry will gain many benefits when International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10-Clinical Modification (CM) is implemented. One of the main benefits is that the disease classifications will be consistent with current clinical practice and medical technology advances. The new classification codes will be very granular, which means the level of specificity will greatly improve. Numerous new codes will represent more specific anatomic sites, etiologies, comorbidities, and complications, and will improve the ability to demonstrate severity of illness. For instance, the new feature of laterality is directly built into the new codes: separate codes will distinguish right, left, and bilateral, where needed. The increased granularity will provide better analysis of disease patterns and outbreak of disease. Additionally, the United States will finally be using the same diagnosis coding system as the rest of the world. This article will describe what the ICD-9-CM/ICD-10-CM codes are, why they are so important, and how clinicians and researchers will convert from ICD-9CMtoICD-10-CM effective October 1, 2014.