Learn The 4 Ways To Get New Codes Into Medisoft

If you are trying to figure out how to get new ICD-10 codes into Medisoft, there are 4 different ways to get it done. In this post we will cover all 4 of the different methods.

Options for Loading ICD-10 Codes in Medisoft

1. Manual Entry
2. ICD-10 Mapping Tool
3. Codes On Disk
4. Encoder Pro

Watch the video we have included below to get detailed information on how to use each of these methods. Loree, our most awesome Medisoft trainer shows you in Medisoft how to use all of these methods for entering new codes. The video is only 23 minutes long and gives you all the details you need to know.

Let’s take a quick look here though at each of these options.

Manual Entry of New Codes

You can manually type into the program each of the new codes that you will need. Just go into your diagnosis and click on “New” and then enter your code. The down side to this is that it take a lot of time, there is room for error, and you need to have some sort of resource giving you the codes to put into the program. So you’d need to buy a book or look up the codes online somehow.

ICD-10 Mapping Tool

In the Tools tab of Medisoft, at the bottom of the drop-down list hover over the Services option and click on “Create ICD-10 Mappings”. This is a tool built into Medisoft that you can use that will look at the existing ICD-9 codes you are already using and map them to an ICD-10 code.

This tool is based on the General Equivalency Mapping (GEM) files published by CMS, and is not intended to be used as an ICD-10 conversion or crosswalk tool. The list of ICD-10 codes and mappings is accurate as of 6/1/2013. Keep in mind that while many codes in ICD-9-CM map directly to codes in ICD-10, in some cases, a clinical analysis may be required to determine which code or codes should be selected for your mapping. Always review mapping results before applying them.

If you are new to Medisoft, this tool won’t really work for you because you don’t have any previous codes to map back to. If you are a previous user of Medisoft and upgrading, then this tool can work well for you.

Codes On Disk

Codes on Disk is a separate program that stands alone separate from Medisoft, but will directly import the codes you select directly into your program.

There are several features to Codes on Disk, but specifically for ICD-10, it is a digital library of codes, and you can use it to mass import a large group of codes, or the entire library of ICD-10 codes if you wish to have that in your program. Instead of manually entering codes into the program one at a time, you can just select all the codes you need, click Merge, and then your codes are in the program.

Encoder Pro

This program, when installed, becomes part of Medisoft. So in order to use this program, you don’t have to leave Medisoft.

Encoder Pro completely replaces your coding book. Although you cannot use this program to do a mass import of all codes, all of the codes are inside of Encoder Pro in an easily searchable format making it easy to find the codes you need.

Watch The Video

To get all the details on each of these 4 options, just watch the video. We show you exactly how you would do each of the options, give you several examples in each case, and provide you will additional resources to help you get your codes into Medisoft.

In the above video, Codes on Disk and Encoder Pro are both shown and you will get some details on how to use the program. For a more in depth demonstration with a lot more detail, you can watch this webinar replay recording – ICD-10 Webinar- How To Get New Codes Into Medisoft.

Interested in Purchasing Codes on Disk, or Encoder Pro?

Codes on Disk and Encoder Pro are both programs that can save you a lot of hours searching and importing codes into your program. Call us today to get more information on the programs, and to get a quote!

Give us a call at (888) 799-4777.

Transcript for first video:

Hello, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. This is Loree Olsen from AZCOMP Technologies, and today we’re going to be talking about how to set up ICD-10 codes. The common question that we get is, does Medisoft come with ICD-10 codes preloaded? The answer to that question is no. Without going to all the full details of everything ICD-10 and how to set everything in Medisoft, I’m just going to just specifically focus on your options for how to set up our ICD-10 or how to load them into the system, what options you have for that. Just that one really narrow answer to your ICD-10 question.

We do offer a full ICD10 training webinar series that goes more in depth to give you all the information you’d need to know about Medisoft and ICD-10, but today we’re going to focus just on this. The options for loading ICD-10 codes into Medisoft, there’s really 4 options for you. The first one is just to manually set up or enter the codes in yourself. The second option is to use ICD-10 mapping tools. If you’re converting to Medisoft 20 from the previous version, then you do have that IC mapping tool available to you.

Then we have a few additional options that are add-on products. They’re not going to come with your core product, but they might have been something that you’ve purchased as part of your offering or upgrade. They are separately purchased products, and that’s Codes on Disk, and then the last one is the Encoder Pro. I’m going to give you a quick preview of how to do that, how each of these 4 options work within the system.

I’m going to go ahead and jump into Medisoft version 20, which is our ICD-10 compliant version, our latest version of the product. We’re going to jump right into the diagnosis code list. You’ll see in the diagnosis code list, when I click on new, if you’re coming from older versions of the product this window has changed a bit. The way that we handle ICD-10 codes when we set them up now are this top line code with description. It’s really just an internal code. You could literally put anything that you wanted in there.

You really always could, but typically what practices will do is in the past you’d actually set code as your ICD-9 codes. In the current version you need to go ahead and set up your new codes for ICD-10 by entering code as your ICD-10 code. I’ll go ahead and set one up right here. All right. Since this is an ICD-10 code I can hit copy down here, and that will fill in those ICD-10 fields for me.

The bottom portion’s important because while you’re in transaction entry, and viewing data in other parts of the program you’re going to see that internal code. However, when it comes to actually processing your claims, what’s going to print out on your HCFA form or what you’re going to send electronically to the clearinghouse or payers, it’s going to pull from these fields down here. There’s additional setup that needs to be done for ICD-10 in order for all that to function properly, but again, that’s included in more detail in our ICD-10 webinar series.

Just in short, that’s what you need to know. Everything in the system, your insurance carriers at an insurance level and at an effective data level, meaning it’s going to know when to start pulling the ICD-10 codes versus the ICD-9 codes. It really helps you manage the product, your billing, a bit easier if you’ve got that if it’s properly set up. You do want to have, of course, your ICD-10 code. The other thing that you can do is you can map back with what the ICD-9 code was for that for this ICD-10 code, and enter that ICD-9 information there.

The benefit of doing that is that there are some scenarios that you’re going to need to have the ICD-9 codes for. There are some insurance payers that exempt from the ICD-10. If you deal with work comp or auto injury, you might need to submit claims with ICD-9 for some payers, and you’ll submit claims by ICD-10 with other payers. That’s why we really encourage you to do the mapping. As well, it’s going to help you as you’re getting ready for this transition.

If you’re involved in testing or anything else, or if you’re just trying to learn the ICD-10 codes today and still send your claims out in ICD-9, then you would want to have the mapping setup properly, so that you no longer have to worry. You can just start just using the new codes, and then the claims are going to pull the appropriate code on there. Otherwise, you do have to pay attention and know when you should use a code and when you shouldn’t.

Once we get past that October 1 date that may or may not be an issue for your practice, again, depending on rebillings and again some of those exceptions to the rules. In short, if I’m manually entering up, I’ll set that up. I don’t have to actually know the mapping for that ICD-9, so I’m going to leave that out, and I’m just going to hit save. Okay? I guess I’ve already saved it. Your other option that you have, that’s number one. You can see obviously the downside of that is it’s going to take a bit of time, and there is room for error, as I’m keying things in myself.

Included in Medisoft version 20, you’re also going to have, if you go to your tools and your services, you’re going to have this great feature called ICD-10 mapping. What this tool does is it looks at the GEM, the General Equivalency Mappings, that were produced by CMS, or released by CMS. It’s going to instead of just loading the entire ICD-10 library to your database, what it’s going to do is look at the codes that you already currently use. It’s going to be specific to what you’re using right now, or what you’ve already set up in ICD-9.

If you are brand new to the product, and you don’t have any codes in the system, this is not necessarily the tool for you. However, if you are upgrading your product, and you have existing ICD-9 codes in your converted data then you can pull this tool up. There are two tabs to it. There’s our one-to-one mapping. It’s going to look at your existing codes. Again, this is whatever I’ve already loaded into my system, and then I’m just going to pick on this one right here, ankle pain. If I check that off, it’s going to create a new code for me, and it’s going to include both the ICD-9 and ICD-10.

You can select them all, but some people are using this as a way to clean up their codes as well. I’m going to go ahead and say just create that selected code. It’s going to map it successfully. You can do it in bulk, and be done in just a few minutes and have those all loaded in. That’s our one-to-one mappings.

Then you also have the other mappings over here. These are really designed around if there are additional options for you. For example, if I were to look at insect bite here, that’s going to map to multiple options under ICD-10. There’s not really a straight one-to-one match map for that. Then I can come in here and again check them all, and load them all, or just select the ones I think I might use in my practice, and then load them.

That is the mapping tool. One thing to note about that mapping tool is that it’s a great start, but in general it does find more of the unspecified codes for your practice. For example, if you’re dealing with laterality and things like that, it may not suggest for you if there’s a left or a right. It’s really just going to go straight to the unspecified. There has been a recent update on using unspecified codes to bill Medicare.

We do have a post on our blog regarding that. If you haven’t subscribed to our blog before or been to our blog before, as we get news and information, we always post that up there for you and try to point out how it relates to you and your product. If you go to AZCOMP.com.blog, you can find this article about the one-year grace period for ICD-10. One of the things that’s highlighted as part of this grace period is that used of non-specified codes will still be paid.

They recognize that this is a big transition for everyone. They are going to allow payments still for those unspecified codes. They’re going to give you a year to start learning and using the more specified codes. That mapping tool is still going to successfully get you moving forward, however, again, the purpose of this is to help you with the transition. They want you to start using the more specified codes, and you may find that you need to load additional codes into your system in order to get those more specified codes.

That leads us to our other options that we have available of how you can build your library. Another option that we have is going to be, is a product called Codes on Disk. Codes on Disks resides outside of Medisoft. You can launch it from your desktop after it’s installed. There are several features to Codes on Disk. I’m just going to specifically talk about ICD-10. I’m going to jump right into this ICD-10 option. We’re going to load codes. You choose which practice. You can load codes to multiple practices, which is a nice benefit for that. I’m going to choose my practice here, and then this is going to pull up my list of everything that I can work from.

Instead of doing manual entry, it’s a real quick way to check, check, check, merge, and it’s done. You can either select all the entire ICD-10 library, and just load it all into there. Some people do that. If you want to not have to manage every single code in your particular database, you can just load the codes that are more specific to you. Even that process is just checking them off. It will still be faster.

Just to point out another resource for you. If you go to Road to 10, if you have not heard about this before, this is CMS’s website that they’ve established to assist physician practices with the transition to ICD-10. There’s a lot of really great information on this site. One thing I’ll just point out is they do have these specialty references, and they’re adding more all the time. You can find information here such as if I go to my family practice, it’s going to tell me some of the common codes that you may deal with, and give you suggestions on that.

Here, you may work off of a much more extensive list than this, but that’s just one way that you could potentially start to narrow down or find the codes that you would use. There are actually GEMs that are specific. They have other lists that are specific to specialties as well that can help you with that.

To show you how you might use that with the Codes on Disk, I can come in here and say go ahead and show me all my J02 codes, and you can see in here. I can just check, check, check whichever ones I wanted. Then pull up my next one, and then when I’m done, I’m just going to hit merge, and it’s all done for me. It’s accurate. I don’t have to worry about whether I’ve miskeyed or not. Again, that’s just one of the features of Codes on Disk. There are a few other cool things that are in that product that we talk about in one of our other webinars.

That’s options number 3 for you. Our last option that we have is also an add-on product. It’s integrated directly into Medisoft. This product is called Encoder Pro. If you are interested in a little bit of peace of mind with your product, we do offer a subscription based model of Medisoft. With that subscription model, you get Medisoft, the latest version of Medisoft, and you never have to worry about upgrading or anything like that because it the upgrades are always available to you as part of that subscription.

You’re just going to pay a low monthly fee, and you’ll get all the upgrades. You’ll also get the installation, your data conversion, and your technical support as all part of that package for usually less than what you would pay for everything upfront. You just pay a low monthly fee as part of a monthly subscription option. Right now, we’re also including in that package Encoder Pro for free. You’d also get this product if you were on the Medisoft subscription.

The way that Encoder Pro works is when I’m in the program, in the diagnosis list, I can click on new right here. You’ll see that it adds a little button on the right-hand side for Encoder Pro. It is completely integrated into the system. When I click on that, it’s going to launch Encoder Pro for me. Encoder Pro is going to give you a lot more than just a list of codes that I’ve shown you in the last few features. Encoder Pro is actually going to replace your coding books.

One of the nice things is you can search by using layman terms or layman descriptions. If I want to put like HTN, I can search by that, which is some of the limitations sometimes of locating a code. You might call it something different than the clinical term for it that’s in the coding book, for example. You can see that I’m not thumbing through a book or anything like that. It’s just taking me directly to all the options that might have that in it.

You have the option to either searching for ICD-9 or ICD-10, and why I say it replaces your coding books it’s because you can drill down from here to find information. It is going to include things such as like if I were to just choose the 41 by itself, you can see that it’s telling me there’s an additional digit required. Here’s everything that it includes. Here’s everything that it excludes. It even gives me links to click on those options, jump directly over to those if I need to.

When I find my particular code then it does allow me to, you can see down here in the lower left-hand corner, whenever I choose it’s going to put down here. One of the great benefits is that it also includes the mapping. I can either go backwards or forwards, meaning that I can start with ICD-9, a code that I’m familiar with. I can even search for that code and find it. Then I can look to see what the ICD-10 code for that would be, and I can map it.

I’m going to actually pull up the ankle pain one just to show you the differences. I’m going to pull up ankle pain, the one that we created with that mapping tool in Medisoft. When we mapped it in Medisoft, it actually was this 719.47. Under ICD-10, it actually only gave us the one-to-one mapping of unspecified. You can see with this tool, you actually get to see where all the options are. When you select those, you can choose that’s the one I just had , and I’m going to go ahead and map that. Hit OK. Then it will come in here and create that code for you.

Again, without going into total detail about Encoder Pro, you can see it’s a much more sophisticated tool that replaces the cost of having those coding books, and makes it a whole heck of a lot easier for you to find your codes, and to either map them properly, which I think is a really great thing to do in your system. It really will help you through this transition to have the codes mapped and not just created as individual either ICD-9 or ICD-10 codes.

That wraps up what our options are today. In closing, I’m just going to go ahead just review the pros and cons of each one of those for you just to reiterate what your options are. The first again is your manual entry. The pros on that is it’s your codes, you way, like that Burger King motto. Make it with your terms and descriptions so that it’s easy for you to find, and you can set it up however you want. The cons on that of course were that, I skipped right past that, but the cons were that it’s going to take a little bit longer usually for you to do that. There is room for error.

The ICD-10 mapping tool that comes standard with the product is that it’s going to use the GEMs and look at the codes that you currently have in your system. Really quickly and easily it’s going to load all the mapped codes for you. The only downside of that one is that again it’s not always going to show you more than the unspecified codes. A lot of the mappings are just going to those unspecified. While you may be good in the short term, you may find that you’re going to have to start adding additional codes for some of the scenarios where there might be something more specific that you could be coding for.

Then we have that Codes on Disk add-on. The pros on that one is that we have that bulk import capability. There are additional features that come with it. The con on it is that it does not include code mapping between ICD-9 and ICD-10. Then finally, our Encoder Pro option, it’s integrated directly in Medisoft. It is going to replace your coding book. It does include the code mappings and it’s super easy to search. It gives you a bunch of additional information and tools.

The con on that one is that the codes must be imported one at a time. It’s not a bulk type scenario. You can either go in there ahead of time and just go through your superbill and whatever and pull them in individually, or as needed. You always have access to that full library. You can find your codes and import them as needed.

That really wraps up today’s informational session on how to load codes into Medisoft. If you have additional questions, you can call us at 877-544-4433. If you are not already subscribed, we keep you up to date with the latest and the greatest and current news through our blog. You can go to www.AZCOMP.com/blog and if you want information such as information on the grace period from CMS, and read up about any of those types of things, or anything Medisoft, or industry news, join us there. If you subscribe you automatically get those updates as they’re posted.

If you want more in-depth ICD info, please join for our ICD-10 webinars. If you are interested in that Medisoft total subscription bundle package, please give us a call, and we’re happy to get you pricing and information on that as well. Thanks again for joining us today, and good look with everything moving forward with ICD-10.