Updating to ICD-10 will give medical practices, insurance companies, and health organizations more than 16,000 codes to use when billing and coding their services. Providing medical practices with a more detailed medical snapshot will improve patient health and ease procedures at the medical and administrative levels. For a more in-depth look, review our previous post outlining the details of ICD-10 here.
What’s Happening Now?
Despite multiple efforts to delay the start date, implementation of ICD-10 is slated to begin on October 1, 2015. This update will bring a big change, and it requires work up-front to ensure that implementation transitions as smoothly as possible. Some medical practices, insurance companies, and health organizations are resisting this training and implementation effort because they fear the hassle. However, with preparation and training, switching to ICD-10 can be a seamless process.
What Do I Need to Do?
With an October implementation date on the books, it is smart to begin preparing for the switch. This means gaining knowledge on how ICD-10 works, and how to use it.
There are training materials provided on the AAPC and Decision Health websites. In addition to these resources, the World Health Organization (WHO) website provides detailed ICD-10 information. ICD-10-specific materials, such as a browser, training, and study guide, are available for download. The American Medical Association (AMA) also provides a helpful service to its customers called Find a Code.
Once you and your staff are knowledgeable of what changes ICD-10 will bring, start to update your guides, forms, and billing systems. Keep an eye out for updates and need-to-know items concerning ICD-10 implementation on the Digirad website.