CMS announces three weeks of ICD-10 acknowledgement testing

CMS will provide three dedicated week-long opportunities for ICD-10 acknowledgement testing in 2014 and 2015.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is in the process of implementing ICD-10. All covered entities must be fully compliant on October 1, 2015. CR8858 instructs all MACs and the DME MAC Common Electronic Data Interchange (CEDI) contractor to promote ICD-10 Acknowledgement Testing with trading partners during three separate testing weeks, and to collect data about the testing. These testing weeks will be:

? November 17 – 21, 2014
? March 2 – 6, 2015
? June 1 – 5, 2015
The concept of trading partner testing was originally designed to validate the trading partners’ ability to meet technical compliance and performance processing standards during the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) 5010
implementation. While submitters may acknowledgement test ICD-10 claims at any time
through implementation, the ICD-10 testing weeks have been created to generate awareness and interest, and to instill confidence in the provider community that CMS and the MACs are ready and prepared for the ICD-10 implementation.

These testing weeks will allow trading partner’s access to MACs and CEDI for testing with
real-time help desk support. The event will be conducted virtually and will be posted on the
CMS website, the CEDI website and each MAC’s website.

Key Points of the Testing Process

• Test claims with ICD-10 codes must be submitted with current dates of service since
testing does not support future dates of service.
• Claims will be subject to existing NPI validation edits.
• MACs and CEDI will be staffed to handle increased call volume during this week.
• Test claims will receive the 277CA or 999 acknowledgement as appropriate, to confirm
that the claim was accepted or rejected by Medicare.
• Test claims will be subject to all existing EDI front-end edits, including Submitter
authentication and NPI validation. MLN Matters® Number: MM8858 Related Change Request Number: 8858
• Testing will not confirm claim payment or produce a remittance advice.
• MACs and CEDI will be appropriately staffed to handle increased call volume on their
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) help desk numbers, especially during the hours of
9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. local MAC time, during this week.
• Your MAC will announce and promote these testing weeks via their listserv messages
and their website.

For more information click here for the most recent MLN Matters bulletin.

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