Final answer:
The use of ICD codes is mandated by HIPAA, which ensures the protection and confidentiality of patient health information. ICD codes are essential for healthcare processes such as tests ordering, treatment prescribing, billing, and epidemiological tracking.
Step-by-step explanation:
The use of ICD codes is mandated by HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). HIPAA was passed into law in 1996 and sets the standards for the protection of patient information. It mandates that businesses dealing with health information, like insurance companies and healthcare providers, must uphold the confidentiality of patient records. These codes are essential for clinicians to order tests, prescribe treatments, for medical laboratories to identify needed tests, and for medical billers to process insurance claims. Furthermore, ICD codes are used to record the causes of death on death certificates and enable epidemiologists to track morbidity and mortality statistics.
Two locations where one would likely find an ICD code are within a medical facility on a patient’s chart for billing and diagnosis purposes, and on death certificates to classify the cause of death.