According to a recent GAO report, CMS has taken numerous steps to prepare industry for the October 1, 2015 transition to ICD-10 codes, such as developing checklists, timelines, and other educational materials and hosting training sessions for Medicare providers. CMS also has monitored covered entity and vendor readiness through stakeholder collaboration meetings, focus group testing, and surveys. With regard to Medicaid, CMS has provided technical assistance to Medicaid agencies, although GAO observes that as of November 2014, not all state Medicaid agencies had started testing their systems’ abilities to accept and adjudicate claims with ICD-10 codes. Stakeholder organizations continue to have concerns about the comprehensiveness of CMS testing and the extent to which entities are using CMS educational materials. The GAO notes that CMS has taken steps to address these concerns by expanding end-to-end testing, promoting awareness of its educational materials, and developing more training options.

Note that CMS announced on February 25, 2015 that Medicare FFS providers, clearinghouses, and billing agencies successfully participated in the first successful ICD-10 end-to-end testing week (from January 26 through February 3, 2015) with all Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) and the Durable Medical Equipment (DME) MAC Common Electronic Data Interchange (CEDI) contractor. CMS was able to accommodate all volunteers, which represented a broad cross-section of provider, claim, and submitter types.