Ready to Comply with ICD-10?
Posted by Deepak Sanghi on May 29th, 2015
Since theyear-long delay in the ICD-10 transition, the CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) has been providing all possible resources to healthcare entitiesthrough the ‘Road to 10’ concept.However, it seems only a handful of them have taken the ICD-10 medical coding implementation seriously.It is highly essential that healthcare entities work against the clock as the deadline is fast approaching. But, recent surveys reveal a shocking truth that the postponement of the ICD-10 medical coding transition from Oct 1 2014 to 2015 might have had a negative impact. Let us delve into more details:
WEDI Survey: The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) conducted a recent survey on over 1200 healthcare entities to learn if they are ready for the Oct 1, 2015 ICD-10 medical coding transition. However, the results were not as promising as they expected.They showed very little progress in the effort taken by healthcare entities towards the ICD-10 transition since August 2014.
The WEDI claims that the 2014 survey results were far better than the 2015 survey results. Evidently, theresults showed that about 33% Providers started external testing before the 2014 deadline, but the same dropped to 25% this year.The WEDI officials have deduced that the past three delays to the ICD-10 medical coding transition have created a negative impact causing healthcare entities to believe that there will be a delay this year too. If the transition becomes live on Oct 1, then healthcare entities would find it really hard to manage medical coding servicesand denials.
Minimum Impact: Even if the healthcare entities start preparing for the ICD-10 transition now, it would be hard for them to cope up as the deadline is fast approaching. It is cited by CMS that the denial rates would increase to 200% and AR days would double to 40. Observing that not many of them are ready for the ICD-10 transition, Louisiana freshman Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, MD, stated that it would be helpful if the penalty phase alone is delayed for 2 years. This way, healthcare facilities need not face huge revenue loss in the initial stages of the implementation. Also, they can handle medical claims processing and denial management without the fear of penalties.
Solution:
We cannot predict whether the ICD-10 medical coding implementation would get postponed again or wish for the penalty phase to get delayed.Therefore, it is better to start preparing for the transition at the earliest. An experienced offshore medical claims processing company like e-care can help sending claims in ICD-10 format, while healthcare entities prepare for the transition and also train their staff with the new code-sets.
About e-care India:
e-care India has 15 years of experience in the healthcare RCM industry.e-care’s 3 offshore medical claims processingdelivery centers have been providing end-to-end medical coding services and denialmanagement services seamlessly to its clients. To know more about e-care and its services, log on to www.ecareindia.com.
