Assembling an ICD-10 Project Team

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="Categorydesc" style="line-height: 17px; padding: 5px 20px;"> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Assembling an ICD-10 Project Team to oversee your organization's shift to ICD-10 is instrumental to a successful transition. This team will be responsible for overseeing the ICD-10 planning and implementation process.<br /> <br /> <strong>Select Your Team</strong><br /> Since ICD-10 will affect nearly all areas of your practice, project teams should consist of representatives from key areas of your organization, including:  </div> <ul> <li style="text-align: justify;"> Senior Management</li> <li style="text-align: justify;"> Health Information Management/Coding</li> <li style="text-align: justify;"> Billing/Finance</li> <li style="text-align: justify;"> Compliance</li> <li style="text-align: justify;"> Revenue Cycle Management</li> <li style="text-align: justify;"> Information Systems and Technology</li> </ul> <div style="text-align: justify;"> This multi-disciplinary team provides the cooperative environment necessary to address your organization's needs. If you run a small business or practice, several of these functional areas may rest with the same individuals, making your transition team smaller.<br /> <br /> <strong>Appoint a Project Manager</strong><br /> Once members of the project team have been selected, appoint one team member to serve as the project manager. As the manager, he or she will be responsible for establishing accountability across the ICD-10 implementation team and making business, policy, and technical decisions.<br /> <br /> <strong>Your Team's Initial Tasks</strong><br /> With an established project team and a designated project lead, you'll be ready to begin planning for ICD-10 implementation. Project teams should: </div> <ul> <li style="text-align: justify;"> <strong>Establish regular check-in meetings to discuss progress and address any issues. <br /> </strong></li> <li style="text-align: justify;"> <strong>Conduct an ICD-10 impact assessment to help you determine how the transition to ICD-10 will affect your organization</strong>, and allow you to schedule and budget for all ICD-10 activities. </li> <li style="text-align: justify;"> <strong>Plan a comprehensive and realistic budget.</strong> This should include costs such as software upgrades and training needs. </li> <li style="text-align: justify;"> <strong>Identify and ensure involvement and commitment of all internal and external stakeholders.</strong> Contact vendors, physicians, affiliated hospitals, clearinghouses, and others to determine their plans for ICD-10 transition. </li> <li style="text-align: justify;"> <strong>Develop and adhere to a well-defined implementation timeline</strong> that makes sense for your organization. </li> </ul> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <strong>Communicate Regularly</strong><br /> Remember to communicate regularly with your entire ICD-10 project team! Keeping the lines of communication open will help make sure everyone is kept up to date on the implementation progress. It may be helpful to establish and circulate a calendar of internal tasks, milestones, and deadlines to help keep day-to-day activities running smoothly and on schedule.</div> </div> </div>

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Assembling an ICD-10 Project Team to oversee your organization's shift to ICD-10 i...

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How to Prepare For Documentation Changes and Improvements with ICD-10

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="Categorydesc" style="line-height: 17px; padding: 5px 20px;"> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Although the final rule on the proposed ICD-10 deadline change has not been published yet, it is important to continue planning for the transition. ICD-10 will require an increased granularity and specificity in documentation of patient encounters. This change will mean that providers and payers need to adjust how they document patient visits but will create more detailed data that can be used to improve patient care. More specific code sets can also assist providers avoid delays in reimbursement payments by identifying why certain claims are being rejected or denied by payers.<br /> <br /> <b>You will need to prepare for these changes in clinical documentation by taking certain steps:</b></div> <ol> <li style="text-align: justify;"> <b>Inventory Systems and Identify Discrepancies:</b> You should review your systems that currently use ICD-9 in order to identify areas in your revenue cycle, reimbursement rates, health information management, electronic medical records, and clinical systems that will eventually use ICD-10.  These systems will be affected by the increased specificity of documentation as well as the increase in number of codes used in ICD-10. Your systems inventory will need to evaluate any potential gaps in clinical conditions or work flow processes that could be affected by increased documentation. Once you have identified any discrepancies, you can update and modify your systems and processes prior to transitioning to the new code sets. This will save your organization time by finding incomplete or non-specific data and ensuring that they do not cause a delay with coding and billing when you finalize implementing ICD-10. <br />  </li> <li style="text-align: justify;"> <b>Evaluate Current Software Systems:</b> As you conduct your systems inventory, you may realize that some of your systems have become out-of-date or are redundant. You will need to determine if it is more cost-effective and efficient to upgrade these systems or centralize and replace them before ICD-10 implementation.<br />  </li> <li style="text-align: justify;"> <b>Train and Educate Staff:</b> Your organization should identify staff members, from providers to coders, who currently use ICD-9 codes. Staff who will now be using ICD-10 will need training to become familiar with the increased documentation standards necessary with the new code sets. Training will help staff members become comfortable with both the heightened specificity and increased number of code sets that they will be using frequently.  <br />  </li> <li style="text-align: justify;"> <b>Test the Documentation Process: </b>Finally, your organization will need to test each stage of the new documentation process in a trial setting. Staff members should simulate a typical patient encounter in its entirety to ensure that data is being documented thoroughly and consistently. This will also help identify any areas that still require improvement in the coding process.</li> </ol> </div> </div>

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Although the final rule on the proposed ICD-10 deadline change has not been published yet, it is important to continue planning for the ...

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Steps to Assess How the ICD-10 Transition Will Affect Your Organization

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="Categorydesc" style="line-height: 17px; padding: 5px 20px; text-align: justify;"> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Although the final rule on the proposed ICD-10 deadline change has yet to be published, it is important to continue planning for the transition to ICD-10. The switch to the new code set will affect every aspect of how your organization provides care, from registration and referrals, to software/hardware upgrades and clinical documentation.<br /> <br /> <strong>A critical step in planning for the transition is to conduct an impact assessment of how the new code sets will affect your organization. Your impact assessment should include:</strong></div> <ul style="text-align: justify;"> <li> <strong>Documentation Changes:</strong> You will need to consider the increased specificity of ICD-10 codes compared to ICD-9 codes, and ensure that patient encounters are documented with appropriately comprehensive clinical descriptions. You should: <ul> <li> Train staff to accommodate the substantial increase and specificity in code sets</li> <li> Consider physician workflow and patient volume changes</li> <li> Revise forms, documents, and encounter forms to reflect ICD-10 codes</li> <li> Evaluate processes for ordering and reporting lab/diagnostic services to health plans</li> </ul> </li> <li> <strong>Reimbursement Structures:</strong> You should coordinate with payers on contract negotiations and new policies that reflect the expanded code sets, since they can affect reimbursement schedules.</li> <li> <strong>Systems and Vendor Contracts: </strong>Ensure your vendors can accommodate your ICD-10 needs. Find out how and when your vendor plans to update your existing systems. You will need to review existing and new vendor contracts and to evaluate vendor offerings and capabilities against your organization's expectations. Work with your vendors to draft a schedule for needed tasks.</li> <li> <strong>Business Practices: </strong>Once you have implemented ICD-10, you will need to determine how the new codes affect your processes for referrals, authorizations/pre-certifications, patient intake, physician orders, and patient encounters.</li> <li> <strong>Testing:</strong> Work with your vendors to determine the amount of time needed for testing and schedule accordingly.</li> </ul> <div style="text-align: justify;"> ICD-10 will affect nearly all areas of your practice, but with a thorough impact assessment, you can keep your day-to-day activities running smoothly while you transition to ICD-10.</div> </div> </div>

ICD 10 Training ICD 10 Updates ICD-10 transition Steps to Assess How the ICD-10 Transition Will Affect Your Organization

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Looking Back at Version 5010 and Ahead to ICD-10

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> Last year all practices covered by HIPAA were required to upgrade from Version 4010 to Version 5010 standards for electronic health care claims and other transactions.<br /> <br /> <b>The Version 5010 upgrade paved the way for ICD-10 and offers valuable insights:</b><br /> <br /> <ol style="text-align: left;"> <li>Early planning and preparation will smooth your transition to ICD-10. Practices that planned for the Version 5010 upgrade were well prepared and transitioned smoothly. For ICD-10, your office can start planning by developing a checklist of activities that will need to be completed and a timeline for accomplishing these tasks. <br /> </li> <li>Communication and coordination must occur not only in your office, but also between your practice and the trading partners you conduct business with – software vendors, clearinghouses and billing companies, commercial and government health plans and other payers.<br /></li> <li>Risk mitigation is important to address any disruptions that may occur as your practice transitions to ICD-10. You may want to consider planning for possible short-term cash flow disruptions and for securing the services of billing companies or clearinghouses.<br /></li> <li>Testing will need to be conducted within your office and with all payers and other companies you work with. You will need to begin ICD-10 testing in 2013 to allow for ample time to test multiple types of transactions, including claims. Share your ICD-10 plans with one another now to ensure you are on track to test at the same time.</li> </ol> <br /> If you conduct electronic transactions and have not made the upgrade to Version 5010 standards, get a compliance plan in place right away.<br /> <br /> You must use Version 5010 standards before your practice management or billing system can accommodate the structure of ICD-10 codes.<br /> <br /></div>

HIPAA 2010 Update HIPAA 5010 ICD-10 News Looking Back at Version 5010 and Ahead to ICD-10

Last year all practices covered by HIPAA were required to upgrade from Version 4010 to Version 5010 standards for electronic health care cl...

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