Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

ICD-10:

Don't Put Your ICD-10 Transition Plan On The Back Burner

Published on Mon Nov 26, 2012

A working budget should include every aspect of planning, including productivity, training. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services may have delayed the implementation date by a year, but that does not mean you should put off preparation for the transition. Phasing in your transition is just one of the tips offered during an Oct. 25th CMS National Provider Call entitled, "Preparing Physicians for ICD-10 Implementation." "Education and patience are key," says Ginger Boyle, MD, a practicing family physician who has developed a coding education program for her hospital and its family practice residency program, during the call. Her presentation broke down your ICD-10 transition into the following six phases:

Planning.

Communication and awareness.

Assessment.

Operational implementation.

Testing.

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 create your budget. Be sure to include software upgrades, training needs, and productivity loss/gain. Then, you talk to all those involved, which may include office administrators, vendors, providers, clearinghouses, payers, and other associates. You need to monitor the impact on the following aspects:

personnel: staff, providers

claims

reimbursement

denials

rejections

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, visit the CMS ICD-10 page at www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/ICD10.

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