We all hope the question won’t be necessary, but the industry-wide climate of fear and dread that has surrounded ICD-10 demands an answer. What will you do if you or one of your major business partners crashes and burns on October 1, 2014? Experts are starting to nudge providers into considering the worst even as they plan for success as it becomes clear that a lack of coordination and slow progress on the part of vendors and payers is putting the hopes of a smooth transition in jeopardy.
Contingency planning depends on knowing where your trouble spots lie so you can address them appropriately. “Maybe one of the vendors went out of business. Or maybe you never approached all of your payers,” says Bonnie Cassidy, MPA, RHIA, FAHIMA, FHIMSS, Senior Director of HIM Innovation for Nuance. “It’s like business disaster planning. If one of those is out of alignment, it can disrupt your whole plan. Business partners, business associate agreements, IT vendors, contracts…all of those things need to be built in and accounted for in your contingency plan.”
“You internal systems might fail. Your vendor software might not be delivered on time. Your health plans might not be ready. You just need to identify all those risks and look at how you can accommodate that with internal efforts,” adds Jim Daley, Director of IT Risk and Compliance at BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina and the Chairman of WEDI. Contacting your partners to figure out where they are in the software development, internal testing, or customer preparation process is vital to ensuring that you can cover all your bases.
Build your safety net
“Would you need extra staff? Are there alternative services you can use if one of your partners isn’t ready? If a payer isn’t ready, do you have cash reserves so you can handle a short term shortfall in payments while the payer is getting ready?” Daley asks. “Certainly we hope that any disruption is minor and short term, but you never know with something this large.”
