CMS’s HIPAA standards 4010 to 5010 conversion will take place on January 1, 2012. Many practices have high expectations of the new 5010 format, some even hoping for the capability to list more than four diagnoses per procedure or line item.

According to the information published by the Accredited Standards Committee X12, that limitation has not changed. 5010 still limits four diagnoses per procedure, but it does increase the number of diagnoses per claim to 12. Slide 35 from the Accredited Standards Committee presentation explains.

Among the benefits of Version 5010 are significant transaction improvements, support for ICD-10, and clarified NPI instructions.

White Plume clients can rest easy. The format that we use to electronically capture and send clean charge data to PM systems today is compatible with the formats that will be used by PM systems on January 1, 2012, so no upgrade of our software will be required for 5010. A little nice news for practice administrators when there is always more to do than you have time to do!