ICD-10 compliance is now less than a year away and a Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) survey showed that larger groups and facilities are being proactive while others seems to be taking their time (survey included over 500 responses from providers, vendors and health plans.) The delay in enacting ICD-10 negatively affected provider progress and WEDI Chairman Jim Daley stated that unless all stakeholders make a “dedicated effort” to focus on implementation, the transition will cause “significant disruption” in the healthcare industry next fall.
SearchHealthIT and the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives published results to a survey that showed that more than 59 percent of respondents stated they have not begun testing. Three quarters of that 59% have not yet completed software upgrades that will allow them to be compliant. On the brighter side 10.7 percent of respondents said they were fully ready for ICD-10 and many are using the extra time for education and training of coding staff.
In August, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that there would be 3 testing weeks leading up to implementation; November 17-21 2014, March 2-6 2015, and June 1-5 2015. CMS states that there will be no further extensions, but due to it already being changed twice, the deadline is met with skepticism by many hospital CIOs. ICD-10 will allow for greater detail and the ability to be more accurate about new technologies and procedures – the codes will allow for better evaluation and improve the quality of patient care. As an example below shows, codes are now more precise and allow for a much wider picture of the condition:
Your Practice Management System should be updated to use the new ICD-10 code set. Medisoft, Lytec, Practice Choice and Greenway are among the systems updated with ICD-10 readiness. Implementing the new code set is an achievable and a mandatory goal, and healthcare IT, insurance carriers, clearinghouses, healthcare providers and organizations. If would like training on many of today’s popular EMR software choices, contact Microwize Technology.