Announcement Subject: Materials on the "Transition to ICD-10-CM Page" Have Been Revised!
folder_openChanges to Protocols and Guidelines, Information for Home Health Agenciescalendar_todayPosted December 3, 2015

The purpose of this announcement is to alert survey vendors that there are now some restrictions for submitting Primary Diagnosis ICD-10 codes to the HHCAHPS Data Center. HHCAHPS vendors must ensure that their XML files comply with these restrictions before submitting their April 21, 2016 data files, which is the first time that ICD-10 codes will be submitted to the HHCAHPS Data Center.

To give survey vendors time to test changes to their systems and file structures, the HHCAHPS Coordination Team has updated the relevant appendices in the Protocols and Guidelines Manual, the XML file schema, and the XML schema validation tool to reflect these new restrictions. These materials are now available on the "Transition to ICD-10-CM" dedicated webpage on the HHCAHPS website. Vendors can access these materials at the link below, once they are logged in to the website. (Updated versions of the Protocols and Guideline Manual will be made available in January 2016, incorporating these changes.)

https://homehealthcahps.org/DataSubmission/TransitiontoICD10CM.aspx

The last two bullets provide details of the restrictions for submitting ICD-10 Primary Diagnosis codes.

Primary Diagnosis Codes

• HHAs should provide ICD 10 codes as the primary diagnosis.
• All ICD-10 codes are 7 digits, rather than the 5 allowed on the XML file for the ICD-9 codes.
• All codes must be left-justified, all leading zeroes must be retained, and no decimal points should be used.
• Z-codes as the primary diagnosis, while not preferred, are allowed and will be accepted.
• External cause codes (ICD-10 codes beginning with V, W, X, or Y) are not allowed as the primary diagnosis but are allowed for the Other Diagnosis data elements.

If you have any questions, please contact the HHCAHPS Survey Coordination Team via e-mail at hhcahps@rti.org or call toll-free at (866) 354-0985.