A team of researchers may have uncovered what many involved in the transition to ICD-10 have feared all along: Disruption of data and financials is on the horizon.
The April 1 confirmation of the delay in implementing the ICD-10 code set certainly took the wind out of many healthcare organizations' sails. Those organizations spent countless hours and dollars preparing for the go-live date that was six months away.
The Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 was recently signed into law, and what might seem on the surface like a straightforward attempt to prevent cuts to Medicare physician rates is actually more than meets the eye.
With the biggest change to the coding world just around the corner, dual coding in ICD-9 and ICD-10 is one task that should be at the top of everyone’s list of implementation priorities.
Communication is a major portion of the documentation and coding conundrum. Creating avenues for information exchange with the physician community is essential to the success of clinical documentation improvement (CDI) and the capture of coded data. Physicians take a variety of courses (e.g., pathology, physiology, disease manifestations, etiology, and process) throughout their academic medical education. However, their education does not address the importance or the details of documenting medical terminology with specific information that corresponds to ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes. Physician profiles and scorecards have been linked to ICD-9-CM codes; physician awareness of this and future linkage to ICD-10 is necessary.
CMS has finalized changes to packaged services and E/M CPT® codes for clinic visits with the much-anticipated November 27, 2013 release of the 2014 outpatient prospective payment system (OPPS) final rule.
The road to ICD-10 has been a long one, and we still have many miles ahead of us. Organizations have invested a significant amount of time and money into this venture, and even though October 1 is rapidly approaching, there’s still work to be done before and after implementation.
Medical Records Briefing (MRB) recently asked HIM, clinical documentation improvement (CDI), and coding professionals about their ICD-10 implementation efforts for our first quarterly benchmarking survey of the year.
It's no secret that ICD-10-CM allows for more specific coding of many diseases and conditions. However, your physician's current clinical documentation may not have enough detail to allow coders to take advantage of this increased specificity.
To accurately interpret and code physician documentation, the HIM department must employ a quality clinical documentation improvement (CDI) program and an effective query process. Building upon these programs is integral to the success of the HIM department, especially where ICD-10 is concerned, said Deborah Lantz, RHIA, during HCPro's audio conference "Auditing Documentation for ICD-10: Steps to Take Now to Prepare Physicians and Staff." Lantz is the director of HIM at St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson, N.Y., and an AHIMA-certified ICD-10 trainer.
