After a false start or two, CMS has set a final ICD-10 implementation deadline for October 1, 2015, as widely expected. In a notice released on Thursday, CMS states that the deadline gives providers, payors and other healthcare stakeholders ample time to prepare. While the most recent delay was a source of frustration to many on the provider and vendor sides who had done their homework and were ready for an October transition, not everyone on the payor side was expected to be ready for the change. Experts widely recommended that practices have sufficient lines of credit in the event of an uptick in denials and slowdown in the revenue cycle. Let’s hope this extra year will put the payor side in a better position to uphold their end of the patient care trust.
Meanwhile, a year’s delay, even for those who consider themselves prepared, is an unexpected gift and represents an opportunity to go beyond readiness to optimize the transition to ICD-10. As described by Karna W. Morrow, CPC, RCC, Coding Strategies, during the spring meeting of the RBMA California chapter, ICD-10 is best approached as a process of continuous quality improvement. Most important of all, do not delegate readiness to your billing and coding vendors.
“ICD-10 is not about your vendor,” Morrow told a group gathered at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, Calif. “I don’t care who they are and how may bells and whistles they have. At the end of the day, do they dictate the medical record?”
Morrow made it very clear that this transition represents a challenge for the entire practice in solving a problem that has long plagued the specialty: Getting enough information about the patient from the referring physician. You must train and enlist everyone in the effort: Technologists, schedulers, pre-op clerks, the billing department, payment posters, everyone.
Of course, radiologists need to be trained as well. Morrow boiled down the increased responsibility of the radiologist’s dictation to the following handy algorithm: location (specific anatomical site), severity (acute versus chronic), context (history, underlying condition, intent of imaging), and story (initial, subsequent or sequel effect, what was patient doing and where was the event, patient status at the time).
The biggest mistake you can make is assuming everyone knows what to do.
Vice President, Executive Editor, Radiology Business
Cheryl began her career in journalism when Wite-Out was a relatively new technology. During the past 16 years, she has covered radiology and followed developments in healthcare policy. She holds a BA in History from the University of Delaware and likes nothing better than a good story, well told.