ICD-10 goes live Oct. 1, 2014. Do you know how far along you are in implementation? Are you aware of the phases you need to pass between now and then?
If not, read below as Morgan Hunter Healthcare offers a short primer on the key dates and requirements in 2013 for ICD-10.
You should already have created – or started to create – an impact analysis for your facility; one that will show how the transition will affect your practice’s productivity, reporting procedures, and cash flow, as well as how it may impact your interactions with other clinicians as well as payers.
Your second and third steps will see you getting in touch with organizations outside your practice or facility such as EHR vendors, payers, billing houses, etc. It may take you two or even three months, according to the AMA, to get all the specific details as to where your vendors are for their own ICD-10 upgrades.
The AMA’s fact sheet estimates that it could take a facility as long as nine months to complete installations, updates and internal testing of your vendors’ upgrades.
You also should update your internal processes regarding medical coding during this time. These would include encounter forms, quality data collection forms, public health reporting forms, etc. The AMA recommends that you look at the most common diagnoses that your clinicians make and make sure that all clinical documentation has the information necessary so that your ICD-10 reporting will be accurate.
Once you’re done with your internal assessment, the AMA recommends that you contact your clearinghouses, billing services and payers in order to conduct external testing. This is a critical part of the implementation process because you’ll want to make sure that transactions can be sent and received properly in order to avoid disruptions in payment and denied claims. This phase, according to the AMA, could take between six to nine months.
Your final step, naturally, is actually making the change to ICD-10 on October 1, 2014. You’ll have to be sure that all services and discharges on that day, and from then on, are coded using ICD-10: Any transactions using ICD-9 after Oct. 14, 2014 will be rejected.
Are you on track to make the October 14, 2014 deadline? If you need IT professionals who specialize in EHR for consulting, migrations, implementations, upgrades, or assessments, Morgan Hunter Healthcare can help. Contact us today to learn more about our EHR personnel staffing services.