What you Should Know About the GEMS and Partial Code Freeze General Equivalence Mappings (GEMs) The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) created the national version of the GEMs to ensure that consistency in national data is maintained. The GEMs are tools that act mainly as a crosswalk between the ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes. You can look up an ICD-9 code and be provided with the most appropriate ICD-10 matches and vice versa. They are not a substitute for learning the new ICD-10 codes; however, they can assist users doing the following: * Translating lists of codes, code tables, or other coded data * Converting a system or application containing ICD-9-CM codes * Creating a "one-to-one" applied mapping (aka crosswalk) between code sets that will be used in an ongoing way to translate records or other coded data * Studying the differences in meaning between the ICD-9-CM classification systems and the ICD-10-CM/PCS classification systems by looking at the GEMs entries for a given code or area of classification
The 2011 GEMs are posted to the CMS ICD-10 website. As a reminder, if you plan to use a GEM, per the Affordable Care Act, you must use the GEMs posted to the CMS website. For more information on the GEMs, look at the GEMs Fact Sheet<https://www.cms.gov/ICD10/Downloads/ICD10GEMSFactSheet20100617.pdf> and the GEMs pages<https://www.cms.gov/ICD10/11b1_2011_ICD10CM_and_GEMs.asp#TopOfPage> of the ICD-10 website. Partial Code Freeze Because continuous updates and changes to the existing code sets has the potential to make the transition to ICD-10 difficult, CMS will be implementing a partial code freeze on October 1, 2011. This is the last day for regular updates to both the ICD-9 and ICD-10 code sets. Starting October 1, 2012 there will be only limited code updates to ICD-9-CM and ICD-10 code sets to capture new technology and new diseases. There will be no updates to ICD-9-CM on October 1, 2013 as the system will no longer be a HIPAA standard. Keep Up to Date on Version 5010 and ICD-10. Please visit www.cms.gov/ICD10<http://www.cms.gov/ICD10> for the latest news and resources to help you prepare! Note: If you have problems accessing any hyperlink in this message, please copy and paste the URL into your Internet browser. If you know someone who would like to subscribe to a Medicare Fee-For-Service (FFS) provider listserv, go to (http://www.cms.gov/prospmedicarefeesvcpmtgen/downloads/Provider_Listservs.pdf). If you would like to unsubscribe from a specific provider listserv, please go to (https://list.nih.gov/cgi-bin/wa.exe?INDEX) to unsubscribe or to leave the appropriate listserv. Please DO NOT respond to this email. This email is a service of CMS and routed through an electronic mail server to communicate Medicare policy and operational changes and/or updates. Responses to this email are not routed to CMS personnel. Inquiries may be sent by going to (http://www.cms.gov/ContactCMS). Thank you.
