More Detailed Electronic Health Data Coming

You may see in the news that the health care industry is changing to a new transmission format (ANSI 5010) and adopting new diagnosis and procedure codes (ICD-10). Here’s what it all means to you.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has mandated a change that will affect how virtually every member of the health care community — your doctor, hospital, clinic and health plan — exchanges health care data. The new system will use new formats and codes.

Also, the new system allows your doctor and hospital to include more information (and with greater detail) on your health record. The changes themselves will be performed in the background and be invisible to you, but your health records will be more detailed because of them.

The changes are complex as well as labor-intensive and time-consuming to implement. They are scheduled to be implemented across the country over the next several years. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas is on track to meet all schedules in line with the mandated deadlines.