Billers and Coders Help Providers Adapt To ICD-10 Documentation Changes!

<div class="Categorydesc" style="line-height: 17px; padding: 5px 20px;"> <div style="font-size: 13px; font: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; height: auto; line-height: 19px; text-align: justify;"> ICD-10 scheduled to be implemented by October 1, 2014, offers various advantages including enabling clinicians to capture laterality and others concepts in a standardized manner, which supports data exchange and increased efficiency. However this is bound to affect clinical documentation significantly, and propel physicians and billers and coders to upgrade their clinical documentation to make it ICD-10 compatible.<br /> <br /> <strong>How will ICD-10 affect Clinical Documentation?</strong><br /> <br /> Though ICD-10 will not alter patient care in any manner; but it will definitely make clinical documentation very detailed, due to the increased specificity in choices for coding diagnoses. Moreover medical records will also require to be documented as much as possible by coders due to the increased specificity.<br /> <br /> Though most of the information needed is already shared during the patient – visit, it will require accurate recording by the medical billers and coders- which will eventually help in reducing the need for follow ups on submitted claims, hence increasing saving and revenue earned. Coders would also require learning new ICD-10 codes; to ensure complete documentation and accurate selection of ICD-10 codes, an essential for patient care.<br /> <br /> <strong>Adapting to changes with the help of Biller and Coders-</strong><br /> <br /> Medical billers and coders can help by working with physicians in order to improve documentation to –<br /> <ul> <li> Evaluate the current documentation system at the practice, to help find most often used codes in the practice</li> <li> Determine if the future documentation will be specific and detailed enough to choose the best ICD-10 codes</li> <li> Improve overall documentation of clinical services and help achieve specific, detailed clinical documentation required to assign ICD-10 codes</li> </ul> <strong>Are the Documentation processes ICD-10-Ready?</strong><br /> <br /> Billers and Coders can ensure that the documentation is ICD-10 ready by following these steps-<br /> <ul> <li> Comprehend how ICD-10 will affect the practice by <strong>reviewing the current documentation</strong>.</li> <li> <strong>Identify the complete extent of the ICD-10 transition</strong> to help reduce the chance of overlooking any areas which require ICD-10 updates.</li> <li> Ensure all possible gaps in the process have been worked out by <strong>testing ICD-10</strong>, right from documentation to communicating with different vendors.</li> <li> Help find <strong>appropriate ICD-10 codes</strong> which correspond with the most often-used ICD-9 codes at the practice.</li> </ul> All these steps will also help in emphasizing the information which needs to be primarily looked into while documenting for ICD-10.<br /> <br /> The initial impact of ICD-10 on physicians’ post transition will be on clinical documentation; hence the coders’ knowledge about the essential demands of clinical documentation under ICD-10; can be a crucial support to physicians. Besides demonstrating an essential level of coding capability, coders also require to be resourceful in testing.<br /> <br /> Hence as you (medical billers and coders along with physicians) work towards meeting the challenges of the altering clinical documentation mandatory for the subsequent ICD-10 transition, <a href="http://www.medicalbillersandcoders.com/" rel="nofollow">Medicalbillersandcoders.com</a> – the largest consortium of medical billers and coders across all 50 US States offers regular <a href="http://www.medicalbillersandcoders.com/ICD-10/scope-of-the-icd10-program--icd10-the-humongous-task-in-front-of-us.html" rel="nofollow">ICD-10 updates and training</a>. Our unique Training Program on <a href="http://www.medicalbillersandcoders.com/ICD-10.aspx" rel="nofollow">ICD-10 Transition</a> – including updates, webinars, forums, and online learning materials – should help make your clinical documentation improvement job more meaningful and fulfilling.<br /> </div> </div>

ICD 10 Training ICD-10 Documentation ICD-10 transition Billers and Coders Help Providers Adapt To ICD-10 Documentation Changes!

ICD-10 scheduled to be implemented by October 1, 2014, offers various advantages inc...

Read more »

Top documentation challenges in the ICD-10 transition

<br /> <div class="content"> Improving the clinical documentation will be a requirement of the ICD-10 transition. Does it really need to start now?<br /> <br /> "Once physicians learn to document, you won't need [clinical documentation specialists] anymore," says  Melinda Tully, MSN, CCDS, CDIP, Vice President of Clinical Services & Education, J.A. Thomas & Associates, a Nuance company. "That position has the biggest job security in the world."<br /> There are plenty of diagnoses that can be better documented now, she says. And she lists five diagnoses that give documentation specialists the most problems:<br /> <ul> <li> Heart failure is "the bane of existence for every documentation specialist."</li> </ul> <ul> <li> Pneumonia is a high-volume opportunity for documentation queries.</li> </ul> <ul> <li> Renal failure is a problem "because you can document renal failure in so many different ways."</li> </ul> <ul> <li> Respitory failure has the same issue as renal failure.</li> </ul> <ul> <li> Acute hypovolemia very often is under reported. "I have been doing this for 14 years, and you still have to ask surgeons that have just repaired a big femur fracture if you have to give them three or four units of blood if the patient had acute hypovolemia."</li> </ul> <b>Documenting any of these isn't going to get easier in the <i>ICD-10 transition.</i></b></div>

ICD 10 Training ICD-10 transition Top documentation challenges in the ICD-10 transition

Improving the clinical documentation will be a requirement of the ICD-10 transition. Does it really need to start now? "Once physi...

Read more »

HIMSS Urges CMS to Maintain ICD-10 Adoption Date

<br /> <section class="body"> <div style="text-align: justify;"> The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) has <a href="http://www.himss.org/content/files/HIMSS_LetterHHS_CMS_ICD10Recommendations.pdf">submitted a lette</a><a href="http://www.himss.org/content/files/HIMSS_LetterHHS_CMS_ICD10Recommendations.pdf">r</a> to Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Acting Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Marilyn Tavenner to reiterate strong support for maintaining the October 1, 2014 revised date for nationwide adoption of ICD-10.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> In its Feb. 7 letter, HIMSS urged CMS to “send a strong message that ICD-10 has already been thoroughly vetted, will be implemented on the regulatory date, and that we must move forward with the nationwide implementation of ICD-10 by the current adoption date of October 1, 2014 in order to realize the significant advantages of healthcare transformation." Advantages cited in the letter include: </div> <ul> <li style="text-align: justify;">Enhanced patient experience</li> <li style="text-align: justify;">Emphasis on health IT as the groundwork for overall healthcare transformation</li> <li style="text-align: justify;">Quality of population health and healthcare delivery improvement</li> <li style="text-align: justify;">Eliminating waste by improving clinical and business intelligence</li> <li style="text-align: justify;">Cost savings in avoiding loss of billions of dollars in already-invested efforts in preparing for ICD-10.</li> </ul> <div style="text-align: justify;"> HIMSS outlines its considerable education efforts to support providers and provider organizations with ICD-10 transition, including its ICD-10 Playbook and the HIMSS/Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) ICD-10 National Pilot Program currently in development. HIMSS also notes that the “improvement and standardization of electronic transactions has already proven to be a beneficial cost savings to the industry and must continue progress in this area or we stand to lose these savings.”</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> HIMSS strongly encourages CMS to avoid any further delays in the ICD-10 adoption date, and noted that any further delays in ICD-10 will only signal that CMS is not serious about administrative simplification and HIPAA requirements.</div> </section>

ICD 10 Updates ICD-10 coding skills HIMSS Urges CMS to Maintain ICD-10 Adoption Date

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) has submitted a lette r to Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Acting Ce...

Read more »

Getting Ready for ICD-10’s Impact on Meaningful Use

<br /> <div id="article-teaser" style="text-align: justify;"> <b>Stage 2 of the electronic health records meaningful use program begins in October 2013 for hospitals and January 2014 for eligible professionals, and right after that comes the October 2014 compliance date for the ICD-10 code sets. A session during the ICD-10 Symposium on March 3 before HIMSS13 in New Orleans, “ICD-10 and Meaningful Use: When Worlds Collide,” will explore the coming convergence of the two initiatives.</b></div> <div id="article-teaser" style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> ICD-10 by itself will be a major challenge for all stakeholders, but those participating in meaningful use also will face a transition in diagnostic-driven meaningful use quality measures from ICD-9 to ICD-10, says Stephen Spain, M.D., the session presenter, a practicing family physician and CEO at Doc-U-Chart, a Tyler, Texas-based consulting firm.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> That means changing the coding and documentation of quality measures in the meaningful use program, possibly sometime during Stage 2 but certainly by Stage 3.  Unlike changes to the HIPAA financial and administrative transactions, providers cannot assume their vendors will do most of the work to be ready for ICD-10, Spain warns. If an EHR system isn’t properly documenting with ICD-10 when required under meaningful use, achieving meaningful isn’t going to happen. For now, providers should ensure that coders and clinicians are well represented on teams to prepare for ICD-10 and meaningful use preparation, as well as overseeing vendor performance. “You can’t count on your EHR vendor to make sure all the processes are done and work properly, he adds.”</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> As ICD-10 progresses, there will be guidance developed to help providers navigate the necessary tweaks to their meaningful use programs, Spain says. The National Quality Forum, for instance is reviewing meaningful use criteria to assess the needed changes. And medical specialty societies are working to update their quality measures to support the coming convergence of meaningful use and ICD-10, including deciding which of competing codes within ICD-10 would be the most appropriate to measure.</div>

icd 10 codes ICD 10 latest Articles ICD 10 Training ICD 10 Updates Getting Ready for ICD-10’s Impact on Meaningful Use

Stage 2 of the electronic health records meaningful use program begins in October 2013 for hospitals and January 2014 for eligible profe...

Read more »

Resources for the ICD-10 Transition

<br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> As a healthcare billing and receivables management software company, Quadax will be impacted by the change to ICD-10 from many angles. Multiple projects are underway to prepare our software applications for ICD-10 and manage the needs of our clients as well as the industry requirements.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> All of our A/R and EDI applications have defined plans for storing ICD-10 codes in our databases. Systems designs have been created to map the flow of the new code set through the entire billing process. The current status is a “work in progress” and will continue to be throughout 2013 and well into 2014, before the October 1, 2014, deadline. At this point, there are many projects in various stages of the development life cycle from the design phase to project specifications, software development, and even implementation. </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Some items you may see in the not-too-distant future are:</div> <ul type="disc"> <li class="bullet" style="text-align: justify;"> The addition of an indicator on the EDI Payer List, identifying payers who are ready to begin accepting ICD-10 codes, similar to what we did for the ANSI 5010 transition and NPI. Some payers may allow ICD-10 codes prior to the deadline and others may not be able to comply in time. Our EDI Services staff will maintain the indicator to track the payer status and control which diagnosis code set should be passed on claims by payers.</li> <li class="bullet" style="text-align: justify;">Incorporating the industry Crosswalk tool into our applications, providing quick access in Xpeditor, HARP, and PAS to look up corresponding ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes.</li> <li class="bullet" style="text-align: justify;">Account teams reaching out to A/R Services clients with a questionnaire to gauge their ICD-10 implementation status. It is very important that our clients work closely to plan for and test interface files containing any new code sets with Quadax. This early dialog should prevent last minute scrambles and delays.</li> </ul> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Some resources are available to our clients and staff to monitor the progress toward implementation both at the industry level and at Quadax. For <strong>EDI clients</strong>, an ICD-10 News page is available from the Documentation menu in the Portal. The page has brief summaries of ICD-10 news from industry sources and links to further information. It will include news about changes to Xpeditor and other EDI applications once they are implemented.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> For <strong>A/R clients</strong>, information on how we are preparing our HARP and PAS applications to accept and transmit ICD-10 codes can be found on new ICD-10 Web pages developed for this purpose. The A/R ICD-10 site provides easy access to Quadax newsletters and bulletins on the ICD-10 transition, and software changes will be noted on these pages as well as in the release notes. A link to these pages is under “Getting Ready for...” on the main Portal page. The main Portal page also includes a link to the EDI ICD-10 page so A/R clients can monitor industry news.</div>

ICD 10 Updates ICD-10 transition Resources for the ICD-10 Transition

As a healthcare billing and receivables management software company, Quadax will be impacted by the change to ICD-10 from many angles. M...

Read more »