ICD-10 Transition Basic Requirements For Providers
ICD-10 Transition will change how everyone in health care will do business. Many large multi-specialty practices to small provider offices, laboratories, medical testing centers, hospitals and more HIPAA entities will need to devote staff time and financial resources for ICD-10 Transition activities which include:
- Identifying how ICD-10 Transition will affect your organization
- Developing a plan for implementing ICD-10 Transition and creating a timeline of activities
- Working with vendors on new software/systems to accommodate ICD-10
- Coordinating with vendors, payers, and other business partners about ICD-10, especially about testing transactions and processes that use ICD-10
The ICD-10 Transition will go much more smoothly for organizations that plan ahead and prepare now. What type of training will providers and staff need for the ICD-10 transition? Here is some useful information.
The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) recommends training begin no more than six to nine months before the compliance deadline. Training needs will vary for different organizations, but it is projected to take 16 hours for outpatient coders and 50 hours for inpatient coders. Coders in physician practices will need to learn ICD-10 diagnosis coding only, while hospital coders will need to learn both ICD-10 diagnosis and ICD-10 inpatient procedure coding. Take into account that ICD-10 coding training may be integrated into the CEUs that certified coders must take to maintain their credentials. In addition, high-level ICD-10 training will be required so that staff can conduct testing. This includes training to learn the new ICD-10 systems and understand how the structure and granularity of the ICD-10 codes will affect clinical documentation.
The ICD-10-CM, ICD-10-PCS code sets and the ICD-10-CM official guidelines are available free of charge on the 2013 and 2014 “ICD-10-CM and GEMs” and “ICD-10-PCS and GEMs” pages of the CMS ICD-10 website. It is important to coordinate with business trading partners and test processes and transactions that use ICD-10 codes from beginning to end. It also is important to review and evaluate trading partner agreements and contracts.