Home Health & Hospice Week

• When you're working out your plan to transition to ICD-10 diagnosis coding, don't expect to do it in one leap.

"It's not practical to cut over to the new coding system all at once," advises technology consulting firm CSC based in Falls Church, Va. "Health care organizations can expect an extended transition period during which they will have to support both ICD-9 and ICD-10 coding systems," CSC says in a new report, "ICD-10 Implementation: Objects on the Horizon Are Closer Than You Think."

ICD-10's 2013 implementation date may sound far away, but health care providers should be starting their ICD-10 migration strategy now, CSC urges in the report.