In case you haven’t heard, the clock is ticking down to ICD-10, and as far as CMS is concerned, there won’t be a last minute cutting of the wires to diffuse the bomb. You’ve heard the warning bells and the cautions, and you’ve heard the reasons you should be excited about the switch to the detailed code set. But will we be ready when we get there? EHRintelligence has asked experts across the field about their predictions and advice for October 1, 2014.
“I think we’ll be ready,” says Bonnie Cassidy, MPA, RHIA, FAHIMA, FHIMSS. “If I take a look at the clients we work with, on the inpatient side, they’re very much focused on ICD-10. They might have put it off a little bit because of meaningful use and all of the other components they have to be working on, but the area of risk is physician offices. It did say in the recent AHA survey that 92% of hospitals are working with their physicians on ICD-10, but I don’t know how many of them are preparing the physician office to be ready for billing.
Because they still have to do the ICD-10 diagnosis coding for physician billing.”
“We see many hospitals now acquiring physician practices as they prep for ACOs, and I think as they pull in the physician practice, they’re also pulling in the coding and billing. So I think they’ll have a better shot at readiness because the big organization will be taking it over. But that big organization typically doesn’t have any experience in clinical documentation and coding and billing for physician offices. So that’s going to be an extra effort.”
