We are glad to inform our clients that WCH was selected by CMS to be interviewed by their contracted market research consultants Alan Newman Research on the ICD-10. It was a great honor and privilege to be one of the chosen vendors for this interview. Olga Khabinskay provided on in-depth look of how WCH is internally and externally preparing for the migration process to ICD-10. Per request of the interviewer, we were asked to keep the information discussed confidential.
Following is information pertaining to the transition process.
The ICD 10 transition will have significant impact on healthcare providers, vendors and healthcare plans. Implementation will require business and technical changes. The most important headache every office will face in October of 2014 is that, if you don't prepare, you won't be able to submit claims, which means you will not get paid for services.
WCH outlined the most vital aspects of the transition process below:
Each practice will need: Impact assessment (internal education, purchase software, restructuring internal processes, establishing closer relationship with vendors, upgrading computer system, testing with payers, changing from paper to electronic.
Each practice must identify how ICD 10 will affect them. They must do it early!
Develop ICD 10 project plan for each level of users in the practice (what doctor must do ,what front desk must do…etc)
Estimate and secure budget based on the plan.
About the ICD-10 Transition
On October 1, 2014, all HIPAA-covered entities must transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 for diagnosis and inpatient procedure coding. The transition promises to reduce health care costs while improving quality. Currently, ICD-9 codes are used to report medical diagnoses and inpatient procedures.
The ICD-9 codes are nearly obsolete; the more definitive code selection available in ICD-10 will reduce follow up correspondence to insurers to substantiate services and support payment decisions. Implementation of the new code sets will yield richer data, resulting in more accurate payment for new procedures; fewer rejected and improper claims; and a better understanding for the payer of new procedures performed by the provider. Overall care coordination and improved disease management is also enabled by use of the more descriptive codes in combination with medical record notes.
Already the standard in most countries, ICD-10 implementation will enable medical researchers to make meaningful comparisons of the U.S. experience with international health data and to obtain improved knowledge when conclusions are drawn from aggregated data using the improved categories. It will also help pave the way for efficient and widespread use of electronic health records (EHRs) because the required SNOMED-CT will be cross-walked to ICD-10 codes. Because diagnosis codes are core elements of many health IT systems, ICD-10's improved structure and specificity are needed to fully realize the benefits of EHRs and other health IT.
