Medical coding with accurate ICD-10 codes is getting more and more relevant now. According to a recent report from Persistent Market Research, the USA International Classification Diseases 10 (ICD-10) Market is estimated to rise at a remarkable CAGR by 2026. Launched in October 2015 by the World Health Organization (WHO), the ICD -10 system uses codes to classify and monitor diseases, their symptoms, and track causes of injury and abnormal findings.
The applications of ICD-10 include:
- Noting diseases on health records
- Tracking the trends in epidemiology
- Assisting in decisions made for medical reimbursement
Certain key factors that led to the creation of ICD-10 are:
- The need for quality measurement and medical error reduction for the safety of patients led to the improvisation of ICD-9 and creation of ICD-10
- The need for more elaborate listings of diseases and conformity to modern healthcare practices gave rise to the implementation of ICD-10
- The need for a large amount of medical data for the purpose of clinical research drives the demand for ICD-10
Compared to 14,000 codes of ICD-9-CM, ICD-10-CM contains 69,000 diagnosis codes. ICD-10 also provides a large number of combination codes compared to ICD-9, which had limited combination codes. This coding system also offers more number of classification options as compared to ICD-9.
However, high cost is a major concern in implementing this code set. The implementation of ICD-10 across the country by healthcare providers proves to be very costly. This is because each healthcare provider has a minimum of 100 physicians under it along with other entities in the chain, making it very expensive for the providers.
The report segments the market on the basis of type, end-user, and key players. ICD-10 has been split into two systems – ICD-10-CM (Clinical Modification) and ICD-10-PCS (Procedure Coding System). While Clinical Modification is used for diagnostic coding in all the U.S. healthcare settings, Procedure Coding System is used for inpatient hospital procedure coding in the U.S. hospital settings.
End-users (within the healthcare industry) in this market include Healthcare providers, Coders, IT professionals, Insurance carriers and Government agencies. When it comes to key players, the World Health Organization (WHO) is the sole developer and publisher of ICD-10 codes, while the system is adopted by government agencies and other regulating bodies.