ICD 10 Consult
Transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 with one easy app.
By Michael Vacon, PT
If you have not heard, there has been a change from (International Classification of Disease) ICD-9 to ICD-10. If reading this app review is the first you have heard about ICD-10, you might be in big trouble. All kidding aside, I am sure you have been doing quite a bit of prep work getting ready for the big changeover. A good percentage of physical therapists in private practice have moved to electronic medical records (EMRs) and if you are one of them, most likely the EMR company you use has put together some kind of handy ICD-9 to ICD-10 converter so you do not have to try to learn 64,000 new codes. If you are not using an EMR, then this might just be the app for you and your office to help make the transition a little smoother.
I took the time to test drive a few ICD-10 apps and I felt that ICD 10 Consult was the easiest to use, has really robust information for people that just love coding, and it is free! There are some ads in the free version, but for a $5 upgrade, you can go ad-free.
The app was designed by ophthalmologist Evan Schoenberg who has developed a number of health care apps, including a previous ICD 9 consult that got high rankings in app reviews.
So how does it work? There are multiple search options. You can search by using ICD-9 codes you know from the good old days and it will give you a list of codes that you can use based on that.
You can also just go right into ICD-10 search and start typing your diagnosis. What is really nice is that it is intuitive. As you start to type, it starts to pull up suggestions, even if you have a typo or two.
Once you get into the general area you are looking for, it will guide you to “go deeper” into the code, to select more information or to add laterality or some of those dreaded 7th numbers. Once you get down to codes that are “billable” you will see little green “go” lights next to them. If your code is red, or shaped like a stop sign, it means you have to look deeper and you do not quite have a valid code yet.
Once you narrow down the code, you will also be provided with additional information about the code and even some suggestions about other codes that can or should be billed along with it. In addition, you can also save your favorites—by doing so, you could save lots of searching in the future as you start to build your own personal ICD-10 “cheat sheet.”
The only thing I did not find handy about the app is that it is not intuitive to hit a “back button” at the end of the search. However, after using it a few times you will figure it out.
ICD-10 is not fun, ICD-10 is not sexy, and ICD-10 sure as heck is not something that I ever thought would send me in search of an app, but with all that said, ICD 10 Consult is worth checking out, even if you have an EMR that does it for you.
Michael Vacon, PT, is the managing partner of Blue Hills Sports & Spine Rehabilitation in Massachusetts, which is part of the Pinnacle Rehabilitation Network. He is a PPS member and also a member of the Impact Magazine editorial board. He can be reached at mvacon@bluehillspt.com.