ICD 10 Coding Alert

Don't forget to include productivity loss in your budget.

You need to make a plan for an ICD-10 transition -- but do you know how to create one? Before you start panicking, check out this expert advice.

"Education and patience are key," says Dr. Ginger Boyle, a practicing family physician who has developed a coding education program for her hospital and its family practice residency program during an Oct. 25^th CMS National Provider Call entitled, "Preparing Physicians for ICD-10 Implementation."

This presentation breaks 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 establish the budget. Be sure to include software upgrades, training needs, and productivity loss/gain.

Then, you talk to all those involved, which may include office admin, vendors, providers, clearinghouses, payors, and so on.

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, you should go to the CMS ICD-10 page at URL: https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/ICD10/.