Don’t let ICD-10 Coding Changes Disrupt Cash Flow of Your Practice

The deadline to implement ICD-10 is approaching and it has become extremely important for practices to make necessary preparations. Transition to the new coding system will require significant changes in all aspects of medical reimbursement including providers, payers, vendors, billers and so on. If there is lack of preparation it will lead to disruption in the revenue cycle of practices.

Challenges related to ICD-10:

Apart from buying new technology and learning new codes there are various difficulties in ICD-10 implementation that might lead to disrupted cash flow of your practice:

• Under project planning challenges, practices will have to establish co- ordination and schedule meetings, conduct training and education sessions, hire consultants, communicate with vendors and create impact assessments

• Practices will have to face financial planning challenges under which DRG shifts, payer delays, decline in productivity of coders and operational costs incurred in hiring certified coders will create financial problems

• Computer-assisted coding will have to be implemented, workplace will have to be enhanced and EHR will have to be upgraded if practices want to avoid challenges related to productivity due to ICD-10

• Practices will have to invest time in informing all staff members about coding changes and establish co-ordination with vendors, healthcare payers and consultants

• Clinical documentation will also change as per ICD-10 and in case of errors, it will become difficult to submit accurate claims

How can ICD-10 disrupt cash flow of your practice?

A lot of planning and effort will be required to ensure that the above-mentioned challenges don’t affect the revenue cycle management of your practice.

• Cash flow will get disrupted if the coders at your practice are not trained to handle the new code sets

• Since ICD-10 implementation will increase time for medical claim processing, your billing staff will have to be efficient in claim filing or else it will lead to delayed or no payment

• With ICD-10, clinicians and physicians will have to devote more time to attend increased queries. The new coding system will increase documentation requirements and if physicians don’t pay attention on this aspect, coding will not be accurate, again resulting in delayed or lost payment

• Patient number will increase, leaving providers with less time to train staff, revise forms, documents and encounter forms and if this is not handled on time, it can affect the financial health of practices

Due to lack of time, money and resources, a large number of practices are not able to prepare for ICD-10 transition the way they should. Instead, they are seeking help from a billing partner to handle all the issues and ensure timely payments.

Medicalbillersandcoders.com is the largest consortium of coders and billers that can help your practice in smooth transition to ICD-10. Our team has the required expertise to handle coding changes, eliminating your headache of hiring, training, technology upgrading and so on. MBC will strengthen your revenue cycle and give you ample time to focus on patient care.