DAD File documentation

Question: I’m looking at processing the most recent (2015-2016) DAD files, but I have a question about the documentation.

The files Version 2012 ICD-10-CA Tabular List, Volume 1 PDF (4.6 MB).pdf released with a previous version of DAD, and ICD-10_Vol1_PDF_EN.pdf (released with this version of DAD) both say that they are the ICD-10-CA – tenth revision.

• Do they have the same content, and are just showing different publishing dates (2012 and 2015, respectively)? I see that I had apparently missed category U (for emergent diseases of unknown cause (e.g., SARS)), and I’ve added a variable to capture that – anything else?
  
•  A quick glance through the list didn’t pick up other substantial differences – but I didn’t compare the 1000+ pages of each release in great detail 

Similarly, are there substantive differences in the interventions recorded in the respective CCI classifications? I again did a quick scan: while new interventions may have been introduced, the high-level groups (e.g., Diagnostic Interventions on the Musculoskeletal System (2SA - 2WZ)) still appear to be the same.


Answer: The ICD-10-CA and CCI manuals are revised every 3 years and in this case it looks like your client is comparing two different versions (v2012 and v2015).

With every revision, there will be some changes in the document (new codes, retired codes, new coding methodology for certain conditions etc.), but from my experience, the majority of it will remain the same.

Because there are so many codes, and as your client has found out, a lot of ground to cover, I would recommend that they seek assistance from a medical coding professional (ex/ someone from a hospital medical records department) and have them validate the specific diagnosis codes in question for each year.