News You Can Use: Hospital Groups Want ICD-10 Now

Organizations see no reason to wait until 2009

• AHIMA leads calls for new diagnosis codes.
Some powerful healthcare associations have teamed up to issue a statement calling for the feds to adopt the new diagnosis coding system -- and fast.

According to an American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) release, the AHIMA has joined with AdvaMed, the American Hospital Association (AHA), the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), and the Federation of American Hospitals (FAH) in an effort to get the House to approve HR4157 (Health Information Technology Promotion Act of 2005), which would introduce the ICD-10 diagnosis coding system more quickly than planned.

“The ICD-9 coding system was developed more than 30 years ago and no longer reflects current knowledge of disease processes, contemporary medical terminology, or the modern practice of medicine,” the release states. “While the transition to ICD-10 has been discussed for more than 10 years, Congress must act now.”

In a separate statement, AHIMA went further, calling for ICD-10’s early implementation because ICD-9 “cannot support the transition to an interoperable health data exchange in the U.S. HHS must issue a final rule for adoption of ICD-10 as soon as possible to reverse the trend of deteriorating health data and to allow the healthcare industry to prepare for a smooth transition to modern classification systems,” AHIMA states.

In the AHIMA release, the group summed up its position:

• “HHS must immediately initiate the regulatory processes to permit final implementation and use of upgrades to the deficient ICD-9-CM classification system by Oct. 1, 2008.”

• “A coordinated, collaborative implementation strategy should be developed by industry stakeholder representatives to ensure broad input and a consensus-driven transition process.”

• “System conversions and upgrades to implement ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS should be  accomplished by healthcare entities in conjunction with the UB-04 and CMS 1500 (diagnosis codes only) system changes.”

• Alabama hospital pumps cash into IT.
It appears that some hospitals are getting really serious about improving the health of their IT systems -- and one facility in the Deep South is putting millions into technological advancements in the medical field.

According to the Montgomery Advertiser, Alabama’s Jackson Hospital sank $20 million into a computer system that “aims to improve efficiency and reduce medical errors.”

In mid-July the facility premiered New Horizon, its two-phased IT system implementation. The first phase of New Horizon brought several technological updates, including computers on wheels that can be transported through the entire hospital, and Internet-based portals in which  physicians can remotely access patient charts, according to the newspaper.
 
The second phase of New Horizon should start in February. This phase will make it possible for physicians to order a prescription or procedure through the Internet portal.

New Horizon should be fully implemented by winter 2007.

- Published on 2006-08-17