Excerpt:

“The U.S. House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Health, chaired by Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA), has scheduled a hearing on “Examining ICD-10 Implementation” for 10:15 a.m. Wednesday.

There isn’t a list of witnesses yet. But expect representatives from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and American Medical Association (AMA) at least.

There are plans to livestream it at http://energycommerce.house.gov/.

*Small Rural Provider Readiness – “What’s all the hype about? We’re ready to go!” Edward Burke, M.D. and Phillip Beyer, D.O.; Beyer Medical Group, Fredericktown, MO.
*The Countdown to ICD-10 for Hospitals – “How a children’s health system plans to improve care for pediatric patients” David W. West, M.D., Medical Director Health Informatics & Business Partners, Nemours Children’s Health System
*Physician Office Management – Transition is Manageable: New Survey Results on Physician Office Cost by the Medical Office Managers. Karen Blanchette, MBA; Association Director, Professional Association of Health Care Office Management (PAHCOM)
*Payor Readiness – “We have been/continue to test – the system is ready.” George Vancore, Sr. Manager, Systems Integrator and Business Architect, Delivery Systems Mandates and Compliance, Florida Blue…”

The article goes on to include what to listen for in the hearing as well as some additional resources for ICD-10 implementation.

Authored by: Carl Natale on ICD-10 Watch, a part of HIMSS Media Group.

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Excerpt:

“As the deadline for complying with ICD-10 draws nearer, the concerns about industry readiness continue to mount. And despite renewed campaigns by the likes of the American Hospital Association (AHA), healthcare organizations and providers still face the reality of doing business on October 1 and beyond.

Being ready for the ICD-10 transition is the end result of putting in the appropriate amount of preparation which itself begins with an in-depth assessment of all the activities that need to be completed. But which of these activities if not properly completed is going to prove most challenging? According to Josh Berman, Director of ICD-10 at RelayHealth, the answer to that question is testing…”

I have to say that I do agree with Kyle and Josh, testing is a huge obstacle at this point in the preparation process. The best advice I have heard from anyone till now is “Think big and plan for the worst”, that way you won’t be “as” surprised come October 1st.

Authored by: Kyle Murphy, PhD on the EHR Intelligence Blog

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Excerpt:

“The ICD 10 is going to result in super bills that contain diagnostic codes that are so in-depth the bills are going to be beyond the point of usefulness in the detail provided. In addition, it’s going to be more time consuming to complete the process. Here is a good example. A child receives a bite. The medical professional will code the injury according to the newest breakdown, but when the claim now contains a bite, they will now have to specify what kind of bite, such as dog, cat or alligator (yes that’s correct, alligator). There is no reason for this amount of detail on a claim. except that it simply creates a very detailed way of tracking patient’s medical records.

ICD-10 requires some entities to be involved in the gathering and processing of such in-depth information that might ot have been so involved in the past, and that can be more difficult. It entails more coordination between health care providers, payers, consultants and vendors along with project teams and it can affect many different levels of staffing…”

Authored by: Melissa Clark on the OMG, LLC Corporate Blog

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“ICD-10 education must focus on clinical documentation improvement” is an article by Jennifer Bresnick at EHR Intelligence that explains some of the strategies that will help physicians and coders understand what their goals need to be, and how to accomplish those goals ahead of the ICD-10 implementation date in October…

Excerpt:

“What seems to be the best method for approaching ICD-10 education for physicians?

We actually started ICD-10 education about 18 months ago, and we started with steady, monthly educational sessions that would provide boots-on-the-ground support to the physicians, meaning that we imbedded the education for our documentation specialists and coders into the current ICD-9 clinical documentation improvement programs that our clients actually practice now. We feel that physicians should be educated from a clinical perspective, not a coding perspective. The minute that you start showing them codes, they say, “Oh, I’m not going to remember this. I don’t want to be a coder.”

So, when we talk to physicians, we say, “Here, please tell us clinically the information that we need to be able to code it in ICD-10.” This is where it’s very important that the documentation specialists realize what is the clinical threshold for this particular diagnoses, and what specificity is required, and let them actually interact with physicians in a concurrent fashion or, hopefully, real-time with technology, supporting that real-time interaction in the future. We’ve advocated that this is a practice model. The more you do it, the better you get.”

With the help of Mel Tully of Nuance, Jennifer goes on to explain some of the specifics that providers need to focus on right now. The article also talks about whether or not providers will have the time needed to get the training and education that they will need to be ready for ICD-10.

We Highly Recommend This Article to All Providers.

Authored by:  Jennifer Bresnick on EHR Intelligence

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Excerpt:

“If you think ICD-10 is all about new codes, you are dead wrong. ICD-10 is really about “documentation” ─ we clinicians have learned from day one that, “If it’s not documented, it wasn’t done.” This situation is even truer in the ICD-10 world, where the coder must build the ICD-10 code based on the presenting story of that patient’s visit from admissions to discharge. With all the new code options, you never know what code will be built.

Case in point: The ED physician sees and diagnoses the patient with head and chest contusions and a fractured femur caused by a motor vehicle accident (MVA). The hospital admits the patient. The nurse, who documents the patient history assessment, discovers the patient hit the vehicle in front of her on a busy residential street. The therapist teaching the patient how to crutch walk discovers new information that the patient was driving home after a fight with her in-laws and was texting when the accident occurred. The entire story is now documented fully and ready for coding to add to the claim’s reimbursement.”

Diane discusses how real-time documentation will be an important aspect of ICD-10 and I couldn’t agree more. Having the documentation consistently updated will give all care givers dealing with a patient access to the real-time information about that patient, making their care more understandable and manageable at any time during the stay.

Authored by: Diane Taylor, RN-BC on EHR Intelligence

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Excerpt:

“As much as we’d love to, we can’t give a simple dollar amount that applies to all small practices – the number of factors involved in calculating this cost makes a “blanket” number unrealistic. But we can say this…

Now take a practice that ignores recommended implementation timelines, neglects the need for adequate training, and fails to hold their vendors and payers accountable. This practice will encounter some very serious revenue cycle problems. We recommend you run some projections for worst-case scenarios specific to your practice, but we have to warn you – the numbers can get pretty scary…”

The transition to ICD-10 is not going to be a quick or simple process for providers. It’s expected to be time consuming, burdensome and costly for most providers. Like the authors, I recommend you seek out as much training, ICD-10 information and professional assistance as you need now, so you will not have a significant drop in revenue in October.

Authored by: Cara Buckhaulter and Kevin McCarthy of NueMD on Practice Fusion’s Blog

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Roberta’s Excerpt:

“Here are some resources to help you begin the transition to ICD-10.

CMS ICD-10 Guide – this interactive web-based tool provides step-by-step guidance on how to transition to ICD-10 for small practices, large practices, small hospitals, and payers.”

The transition to ICD-10 is not something to be taken lightly, it will be very burdensome and will be very costly for most providers. Our recommendation is to seek out as much training, ICD-10 information and professional assistance as you can now, so you will be ready in October.

Authored by: Roberta on HiTech Answers

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Carl’s Excerpt:

“I don’t normally advise panic, but maybe it’s time to make it part of our ICD-10 preparations.

About 87 percent of the healthcare professionals who answered Navicure’s ICD-10 readiness survey aren’t panicking. They’re actually confident that they will be ICD-10 compliant by Oct. 1:

• 22 percent are very confident
• 23 percent are confident
• 42 percent are somewhat confident
• 9 percent are not confident
• 4 percent are sure

That’s usually is a good thing. But the survey that ended in Fall 2013 found that healthcare providers weren’t very far along in their preparations and weren’t sure where to start. But they’re not worried because it’s going to fall into place by Oct. 1.”

The transition to ICD-10 is expected to be very costly and time consuming for providers… As a coder, I am not sure that most providers understand the scope of the change that is coming in October. Preparation will be a key factor in making it as smooth as possible, those who are not prepared will feel a huge financial impact I’m sure.

Authored by: Carl Natale on ICD-10 Watch

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Melissa’s Excerpt:

“As a Provider, ICD-10 preparation, and the subsequent upcoming transition can be a bit daunting. The first thing I recommend you do is to assign one individual to be the driving force behind the process and to oversee the details. This could be your coder, office manager, biller or anyone in your staff with the drive to make it as smooth as possible.”

Authored by: Melissa Clark, CCS-P on OMG LLC’s Corporate Blog

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Carl’s Excerpt:

“One of the most useful ICD-10 preparation resources I have seen comes from the American Medical Association (AMA).

“What you need to know for the upcoming transition to ICD-10-CM”
“Achieving the benefits promised by administrative simplification, ICD-10 and EHRs”

One very notable point made by Step #1 from the AMA is that “organization of the implementation plan” is a 2-4 week process. If you haven’t started step 1 yet, it’s going to be a mad dash to get all 12 steps completed before October 1.

Authored by: Carl Natale on ICD-10 Watch

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