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Insurance companies to follow new medical coding system

By By MD RASOOLDEEN RIYADH: The Council for Cooperative Health Insurance (CCHI) gave a two-year timeframe for all health insurance companies and health service providers on Sunday to implement a new medical coding system.

"The new system, based on the Australian Modification of the International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision (ICD-10-AM), will contribute effectively toward upgrading the level of health services provided in the Kingdom," CCHI Secretary-General Dr. Abdullah Al-Sharif said, adding that it will also act as an effective health information exchange mechanism.

The ICD-10-AM is considered the most important information exchange system worldwide, and is widely used.

The medical coding program classifies diseases, treatments and diagnoses in the form of internationally defined, six-digit codes. This system was developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), and is reviewed periodically to ensure it continues to meet health providers' needs, and keeps pace with the latest developments in pathology. The ICD-10-AM allows for the use of more than 14,400 different codes and permits the tracking of many new diagnoses.

The purpose of this classification is to provide WHO member states, health care providers, organizers and researchers with a common tool for reporting and analyzing the distribution and evolution of health interventions for statistical purposes. It is structured with various degrees of specificity for use at different levels of the health systems, and employs a common accepted terminology in order to permit comparison of data between countries and services.

General Secretary of the Health Services Council Dr. Yakoub Al-Mazrue congratulated CCHI for receiving the ICD-10-AM accreditation. "This system has been adopted by the majority of health sectors in the Kingdom, since it is considered the ideal way to standardize the language used in health facilities for accurate diagnoses and treatment," Al Mazrue said.

Al-Mazrue, who is also the Deputy Minister of Health, clarified that the Health Services Council would soon issue a directive to government health sectors to adopt the ICD-10-AM. He also recommended that health sectors communicate with the council for any assistance needed for them to comply with the new medical coding requirements.

The Health Services Council is the organization authorized to grant medical coding licenses, according to the ICD-10-AM and AR-DRGS agreement.

The ICD-10-AM and AR-DRGS agreement, valued at SR 4.75 million, was signed with Australia following the approval of a royal decree.

"Adopting the ICD-10-AM is considered a significant advance in the provision of quality health-care services in the Kingdom," Dr. Sami Al-Abdul Kareem, head of the National Health Committee and a CCHI member, said. He also pointed out that the system would enhance the quality of services provided by health insurance companies, and would resolve many financial and auditing issues.

He added that the Chambers of Commerce and Industry spread out in the Kingdom would also direct more than 7,000 service providers to keep pace with developments, and would provide ICD-10-AM training courses for their personnel.

© Arab News 2011