The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has contracted the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) to begin assessing the impact on CMS of replacing ICD-9 code sets now used in reporting healthcare transactions with ICD-10 version.

According to CMS, AHIMA will analyze its systems, policies and operations to determine potential impacts of transitioning from ICD-9 to ICD-10, including the latter’s ability to support more accurate payment for new procedures, efficient claims processing and improved disease management.

CMS anticipates replacing ICD-9 diagnosis codes with ICD-10 diagnosis codes, and ICD-9 codes for inpatient hospital procedures with ICD-10 procedural codes.