BDN: Maine health care providers, hospitals prepared for coding challenge

By Jen Lynds, BDN Staff

Handout | TNS

The American College of Sports Medicine says 25,000 people sprain their ankles every day in the United States. Under the new ICD-10 coding system, a person's treatment for an ankle sprain will be given a code that is more specific to the injury than previous coding methods. 

AUGUSTA, Maine — Health care providers across the state began working Oct. 1 with a new system of medical codes that has them describing illnesses and injuries in more detail than ever before, and officials from hospitals and medical associations said earlier this week that they are prepared for the challenge.

At the beginning of this month, more than 100,000 new medical codes took effect in hospitals across the nation as part of the 10th revision of the International Classification of Diseases, or ICD-10. The revisions were made to keep up with changes in medical technology and patient treatment.

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