ICD-10 Compliance Consulting
Assessment. Planning. Remediation
Never before has the healthcare industry been faced with the challenge of simultaneously meeting a plethora of new regulations and deadlines and trying to comply with them with ever-tightening budgets. ICD-10 compliance is one of these critical deadlines that the industry has to meet. By October 1, 2013 all healthcare entities are required to upgrade their systems to be able to use and conduct transactions using ICD-10. Given the complexity of ICD-10 and the range of systems and processes, both clinical and financial, that it affects, it is critical that you assess its impacts and have a remediation plan in place at the earliest possible.
ICD-9 codes being used in the US Healthcare industry are outdated and have limited ability to accommodate new procedures and diagnosis. Furthermore, ICD-9 codes:
- Lack the precision needed for a number of emerging uses such as pay-for-performance and bio-surveillance.
- Limit the precision of diagnosis-related groups (DRGs)
- Lack specificity and detail
- Will eventually run out of space, particularly for procedure codes
The primary incentive for migrating to ICD-10 code set is the greater level of granularity and specificity for diagnosis and procedure codes that it provides. This richer clinical data will help develop better clinical pathways and hence better disease management and healthcare outcomes. It will also provide an opportunity for differentiated reimbursement for complex cases and improved access to healthcare information. Thus, while there will be significant technical, operational and financial challenges for achieving ICD-10 compliance, there are substantial long term benefits of this migration. This effort will require collaboration among providers, payers, software vendors, government entities and other business partners across the healthcare industry.
According to several experts, the cost of ICD-10 migration could be ten times that of Y2K. Though Health and Human Services (HHS) has changed the implementation date from Oct 2011 to Oct 2013 once, it is unlikely that the date will be changed again as US lags behind almost the entire world in ICD-10 adoption. Therefore, it is prudent that you plan your ICD-10 remediation efforts now to avoid the last minute crunch. IGI Health can be your partner in a successful ICD-10 migration.
IGI Health has a proven track record of assisting its clients in the healthcare industry meet regulatory deadlines in a timely and cost-effective fashion. Our suite of solutions and services will help you quickly assess the impacted systems and processes, determine the potential cost of ICD-10 migration and put together an optimal plan to achieve ICD-10 compliance well ahead of the deadline. But you need to start now.
IGI Health's ICD-10 Consulting Services:
IGI Health provides a complete suite of ICD-10 compliance services that will allow your organization to be ready well in advance for the compliance deadline. The services include:
1. Comprehensive ICD-10 Readiness Assessment
2. Remediation Planning
3. Implementation and Project Management
4. ICD-10 Implementation Testing
5. ICD-10 Training |