112 days to go –  So much for the sounds of silence. Last month we spoke of what, in retrospect, was the calm before the storm. This past month yielded the resurrection of one old bill and the drafting of two new pieces of legislation intended to either delay outright or enforce varying types of grace periods for our small batch of 140,000 codes. And then there is Alabama – Oh Sweet Home Alabama! In what has to be one of the great displays of bureaucratic poetry, the state legislature of Alabama has apparently passed legislation that calls for the collective state to urge Congress to delay ICD-10. I’m not exactly sure how to spell that sound you make when you shake your head back and forth with your mouth open but…WOW! Though none of this stand-alone legislation has more than a 1% chance of becoming law according to Govtrack, it remains a collective imperative to aggressively advocate for no further delay, no grace periods and a complete transition to an improved code set capable of supporting future transformation of healthcare research, delivery, and payment.

The NYP ICD-10 project comes into June at approximately 72% complete. A list of NYP’s most recent and cumulative accomplishments continues to move the organization closer to realizing the benefits of ICD-10 and much more.

• Operationalize dual coding.More than half of all Health Information Management (HIM) coding professionals are now coding in ICD-10 for inpatient, ambulatory surgery, and Emergency Department cases. Dual coding interfaces for outpatient clinics at both campuses have been developed for Epic and Allscripts SCM with testing and implementation set to launch in the next 30 days
• Complete end-to-end claim testing with payers and clearing houses. Coordinated by our Managed Care team, testing has been completed with 10 of our largest contracted payers accounting for more than 85% of NYP’s revenue.
• Enabling physician support of ICD-10 documentation requirements. Faculty Practice Organizations (FPO) at both the Cornell and Columbia Campus continue to work cooperatively with the NYP as approximately 50% of all physicians have completed ICD-10 related documentation training. The Hospital Documentation Improvement Department continues to schedule service line specific in-services in an ongoing process to prepare and support physicians and other providers prior to and well after October 1.
• Apply applicable financial reserves. Revenue Cycle and financial leadership continue to push diligence and mitigation activities, reducing A/R days, as monitored by the ICD-10 project to another all-time low and creating a buffer against any unforeseen billing and payment delays after October 1, 2015. Leveraging our partnership with Mediquant, a prototype outpatient medical necessity impact analysis is expected in the next 30 days.
• Supporting Hospital operations with an ICD-10 ready technology and data infrastructure. Tremendous work by the IT workgroup continues to pay dividends as the number of system-to-system interfaces successfully tested increases to nearly 60%.

Other activities will continue to progress and expand under the assumption that no further delays shall occur. For a complete overview of the project status, click here to view the Project Scorecard.

Should you have questions about what you can be doing to get your department ready for ICD-10 or would like to request an in person presentation from the ICD-10 project team, please e-mail ICD10Help@nyp.org.