General Surgery Coding Alert

Remember to factor productivity loss into your budget.

The clock is ticking for the Oct. 1, 2014 ICD-10 implementation date -- do you have a plan to get ready?

Before you panic, check out this "how-to" advice to prepare for a smooth transition:

Take One Step at a Time

"Education and patience are key," says Ginger Boyle, M.D., a practicing physician during a CMS National Provider Call entitled, "Preparing Physicians for ICD-10 Implementation."

This presentation breaks down your ICD-10 transition into the following six phases:

1. Planning
2. Communication and awareness
3. Assessment
4. Operational implementation
5. Testing
6. Transition.

In other words: To begin, you should establish the project structure, responsible parties, and highlight physician and coding champions who can be assets. You should also establish the budget. Be sure to include software upgrades, training needs, and productivity loss/gain.

Then, you should talk to all those involved, which may include office administrative staff, vendors, providers, clearinghouses, payers, and so on.

You need to monitor the impact on the following aspects:

• Personnel: staff, providers
• Claims
• Reimbursement
• Denials.

Bottom line: "Once you create a timeline, you need to stick to it," Boyle says. CMS finalized the ICD-10 compliance date of Oct. 1, 2014, as stated in the Sept. 5, 2012, Federal Register. When ICD-10-CM goes into effect, you should apply the code set and official guidelines in effect for the date of service reported.

For more information, you can go to the CMS ICD-10 page at URL: www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/ICD10/ .