News from the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation

BWC, MCOs, Providers: October 1 Begin Taking ICD-10 Codes

(October 1, 2015) It's October 1 and the national implementation for the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) is here. BWC and its managed organizations (MCOs) are ready to accept ICD-10s on First Report of Injury, Occupational Disease and Death (FROIs), other BWC forms with diagnosis codes and bills.

IVR Changes

The conversion to ICD-10 will impact those individuals using BWC’s phone-based, interactive voice recognition (IVR) system to retrieve diagnosis codes. Generally, this system will provide the ICD-10 codes for new claims and conditions occurring on or after October 1. For claim allowances dating prior to October 1, this system will provide only the ICD-9 code.

During the conversion, BWC expects an increase in calls, which could result in longer waiting times for physicians, providers, and their staff. For quicker service, you are encouraged to use your e-account and log in to the BWC website.

Website Info for ICD-9 to ICD-10 Codes

To help  with this transition for workers’ compensation claims, use www.bwc.ohio.gov to view the disease codes that were converted from ICD-9 to ICD-10. You can submit ICD-10 codes to BWC and the MCOs beginning October 1.

To view claim diagnoses or other claims data, you must use your BWC e-account or create a new e-account. For ease in access and efficiency, you may designate appropriate personnel such as your office manager to have your account privileges. Please view this link to follow the needed processes for sharing account privileges.

Code Groupings

BWC will only allow initial encounter ICD-10 codes in a workers’ compensation claim. Subsequent office visits and condition sequelae codes are grouped with initial encounters. Thus, additional allowance requests are not needed. See the ICD-10 groupings document. Be sure to submit only ICD-10 codes on or after October 1 whenever you are communicating with BWC (forms, bills, etc).

For more information, review BWC’s ICD-10 implementation site and the ICD-10 Implementation Guiding Principles fact sheet, or email BWC’s provider relations department at Feedback.Medical@bwc.state.oh.us.