The site is AAPC.com, and I couldn't figure out what, exactly, AAPC stands for, but as far as I can tell, it's something like, American Association of Professional Coders, and it offers training and certification in medical coding and billing, among other things.
The above link also has a countdown timer to October 1st, when ICD-10 coding will be required.
I've posted previously about ICD-10, (and there's still the page link up at the top of my blog with common diagnoses conversions). There seems to be a lot of fuss about the conversion, but I don't think it's going to be that big a deal in psychiatry. I think there is a much more manageable number of codes than in, say, internal medicine, so I'm not too concerned. What I've been doing about it, lately, is starting to include ICD-10 coding in my charts, and on this month's bill. But I'm also retaining the ICD-9 coding on the bill, for the time being, because I think it's going to be a while before the insurance companies get things figured out, and with both codes, they don't have an excuse not to reimburse.
So my bills say something like:
Dx: ICD-9 296.30; ICD-10 F33.9
Hopefully, that'll work out okay.
Incidentally, what I mean by including ICD-10 coding in my charts is that I handwrite the ICD-10 code on the inside of a patient's folder, i.e. physical chart, right under where I've handwritten the ICD-9 code. Sometimes low-tech is a good thing.
I asked the friend who sent me the link if I could post it, and she, in turn, asked the person who sent her the link, who wrote back that I could post it, and who wished to have her information listed in this form:
Rachel T. Greenwald, Ph.D. of RTG Billing, telephone (347) 980-2417 and email rachel@rtgbilling.com.
I'm trying not to do anything shady in this, but it seems to be a free site, open to the public, and it was a nice gesture. So I hope that turns out okay, too.
And in case you haven't noticed, I put an ICD-9 to ICD-10 converter widget, which I got from the AAPC site, at the top of the column to the right. I tried it out, and it takes you to the site, rather than just giving you the code right in the widget, so I may take it down at some point. But right now, with the conversion imminent, I consider it a public service.
Addendum:
See also, My ICD-10 Bad for a correction.
