‍What is ICD 11? International Classification of Diseases 11th Revision

The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is a coding system developed and updated by the WHO. Much like the HCPCS and CPT medical coding families, the ICD was developed to identify, classify, and record diseases and deaths on a global level. ICD codes are standardized global codes used by multiple nations across the world.

‍

ICD codes are used to track diseases within a population. These codes may help research scholars, doctors, and other healthcare practitioners study and understand the nature of a patient’s disease. 

What is ICD 11?

ICD 11 is the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases(ICD) codes used to interpret and track diseases and causes of death across the globe. The ICD 11 book contains updated codes for the latest diseases. The ICD codes help healthcare professionals keep track of diseases and causes of death of their country’s general population. These codes indirectly help expedite the billing process for hospitals.

What are the updates in ICD 11?

The World Health Organization (WHO) updated and published the ICD 11 codebook in January 2022. The updates made to the previous versions are highlighted below.

‍

ICD-10 Vs ICD-11 (A brief comparison)

‍

‍

The above table mentions some of the key differences between the ICD-10 and ICD-11 coding families. Although a lot of components are modified from those in its previous version, the basic tenets of future versions stick to the original coding standards.

What are the uses of ICD 11?

ICD 11 contains a set of standard procedures for the analysis and recording of diseases and causes of death amongst the general population. All medical professionals learn the medical codes and standard procedures mentioned in the ICD 11. The WHO formulated the ICD to help professionals recognise, distinguish and record diseases for future use. With these codes, the WHO has improved interoperability for healthcare systems worldwide. ICD is used in the following scenarios by healthcare professionals.

Certification and Reporting of Causes of Death

ICD 11 has mentioned protocols to be followed for recording deaths and the causes of death in any population. These records help those who are researching the general health of a population.

Morbidity coding and reporting

Information on what people fall sick from is recorded in ICD. This holds true for all forms of care - primary, secondary and tertiary.

Assessing and monitoring the safety, efficacy, and quality of care

Hospitals use ICD codes to define the quality of care given to patients, the efficiency of the treatment method record any incidents during treatment such as an accidental overdose of medicines or usage of the wrong medical equipment. These incidents are recorded within the ICD to understand the mistakes and help streamline medical procedures.

Assessing Functioning

Since details of treatments and medical diagnoses across the world are recorded in ICD 11, it is easier for research scholars and doctors to document and study treatment procedures administered in hospitals across various countries.

Researching and performing epidemical studies

ICD 11 contains protocols to be followed in case of epidemics. For example, the health regulations and precautions for COVID 19 were prescribed by the WHO only because of the constant monitoring and tracking of diseases as per the directions mentioned in ICD 11. The ICD system facilitates epidemic management by enabling researchers to record their findings and translate them into suitable codes for ease of use. The next big medical threat awaiting the world is anti microbial resistance. The ICD 11 provides details of this phenomenon mentioned in GLASS (Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System), a set of surveillance methods implemented to keep track of antimicrobial resistance in world population.

‍

The International classification of diseases is crucial in today’s healthcare system. Interpretation of important steps to be taken for disease and epidemic management into codes has made it easy for healthcare providers to pre-empt and act upon possible epidemics.

‍

Is ICD 11 used in the USA?

In the U.S., ICD is a HIPAA-designated medical code set. When the ninth and tenth versions of ICD were implemented, the WHO authorized the development of adaptations by member countries to meet their specific statistical classification needs for mortality reporting, as well as morbidity coding use cases. The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the Federal agency responsible for publishing ICD in the U.S., determined that modifications of the WHO’s ICD versions nine and ten were necessary to meet the data classification needs in the U.S.  Thus, NCHS developed the International Classification of Diseases, tenth version, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM). The U.S. implemented the WHO ICD-10 classification for mortality reporting (cause of death coding) in 1999. 

‍

In 2015, the U.S. implemented ICD-10-CM for morbidity reporting (e.g., coding on healthcare claims). ICD-10-CM includes changes to WHO’s ICD-10 with the expansion of specific codes to achieve the specificity required for morbidity reporting in the U.S. Though the U.S. adopted ICD-10-CM fairly recently, it was developed based on the 1990s version of the WHO ICD-10, which is now outdated. The WHO adopted ICD-11 for worldwide implementation in 2019. As of January 2022, the WHO will report global health statistics in ICD-11. WHO member countries have committed to start implementing and reporting morbidity statistics in ICD-11 to ensure global data comparability.6 The WHO has retired and is no longer supporting ICD-10. NCHS continues to maintain ICD-10-CM independently, while the U.S. evaluates and considers the use of ICD-11 for mortality and morbidity data classification needs specifically in the U.S.  

With its advanced AI workforce, CombineHealth is transforming medical coding. AI-powered medical coders like Amy help analyze medical records, including doctor notes, test descriptions, medical history, etc., and automatically assign the appropriate ICD-10 and CPT codes based on the documented diagnoses and procedures.

‍

FAQs

How is ICD different from CPT and HCPCS code system?

HCPCS and CPT code systems interpret the cost of services rendered to patients. In contrast, medical professionals use the ICD codes to define and understand why people are afflicted with a certain form of disease and common causes of death for certain populations.

How does ICD benefit the common population?

Apart from listing various types of diseases, the ICD 11 also contains sets of standard procedures to be followed in case of global pandemics. Accurate recording of diagnoses and symptoms can help us to foresee such phenomenon and take the necessary steps to avoid it. ICD codes help healthcare systems across the globe understand the nature of certain diseases and establish the necessary preventative protocols to diminish the spread.

‍