Grounded in industry-leading clinical terminology, IMO’s solutions are integral to the function of electronic health records (EHRs) throughout the country. And a major reason why 89% of US physicians, nurses, and PAs have relied on our solutions year after year is our commitment to continuously updating our terminology content so it is always current, accurate, and easy to integrate.
Want to know more about what you’ll find in our latest terminology release?* Here are five highlights:
1. ICD-10-CM updates
IMO has completed updates to our ICD-10-CM maps, with impacted lexicals now reflecting changes from the National Center for Health Statistics. The code changes, effective on October 1, 2023, encompass the following:
- 395 new codes
- 25 deleted codes
- 13 codes with title revisions
2. Fair and equitable terminology
In our ongoing commitment to providing fair and equitable terminology, we continue to evaluate and update the use of words that may stigmatize or be offensive while maintaining connections to underlying historical terms and coding in standard sets behind the scenes as necessary.
For the September 2023 release, we focused on replacing or removing terminology that is potentially harmful. There were 17 terms removed, replaced, or added in this release, including some noteworthy updates:
- Hairless woman syndrome has been removed
- Mongolian spot – all lexical descriptions that included term Mongolian were replaced with congenital dermal melanocytosis
- Atypical Genitalia was added as a term
3. New information for Hierarchical Condition Categories (HCCs)
With the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) deciding to move from Hierarchical Condition Category (HCC) Version 24 (V24) to Version 28 (V28), many providers are preparing for how they will manage the three-year transition.
CMS is updating to V28 to improve the accuracy and specificity of the HCC model based upon ICD-10-CM. Transitioning to ICD-10-CM coding enhances data capture and cost prediction. It aligns with industry standards and provides a robust foundation for risk adjustment, ensuring accurate payment calculations.
So, for our September release, IMO has added new content for data associated with HCC V24 and HCC V28.
For information on HCC V28, check out this Q&A here.
4. Updates to IMO Precision Sets
IMO Precision Sets is a solution that helps streamline the creation and maintenance of value sets to help healthcare organizations identify more reliable patient cohorts. To support IMO’s commitment to maintain evolving guidelines, updates to IMO Precision Sets have been released. These updates reflect changes to IMO terms and those based on the June 2023 SNOMED-CT International update; the April 2023 SNOMED-CT UK and March 2023 SNOMED-CT US updates; and the 2024 ICD-10-CM update.
5. Modifier updates
For the September 2023 regulatory release, several modifier changes have been addressed, including:
- Cardiac arrhythmia – Enhanced to capture types of tachycardia
- Hypoparathyroidism – Enhanced to capture four additional types
- Migraine – Enhanced to capture chronic migraine with aura, and abdominal migraine
What’s next when it comes to coding updates? Check out IMO’s 2023 code calendar to keep track of relevant release dates here.
*IMO clients who use IMO Core Periop, IMO Core Procedure, or IMO Precision Normalize will benefit from this release.
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