203 days to go – The thought of another ICD-10 delay is about as welcome as another snowstorm to cap a dreadful winter in the Northeast. Of course, it was nearly a year ago when the industry, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) themselves, were blindsided by winter storm SGR. This devastating ‘unnatural’ disaster bundled a one year delay to the implementation of ICD-10 with the 17th consecutive temporary fix to the formula that determines physician payment. As the expiration of that legislation looms it is only natural to be guarded. Today however, we share out latest project update under the sunny skies of a 50 degree March afternoon; a suitable omen for October 1, 2015.
Remember that special congressional hearing on ICD-10 held in February? It happened. And the results were overwhelmingly positive in support of ICD-10. Constituents from across the industry continuum including physician groups, HIM trade associations, insurance carriers, and technology vendors spoke eloquently as to the benefits of moving to a more specific healthcare classification system including its support of other industry initiatives such as meaningful use and value based reimbursement. Here at NYP, the benefits of ICD-10 are obvious as we continue to provide some of the most innovative, elaborate, and compassionate care to patients from around the world. Care that cannot be sufficiently articulated through an ICD-9 classification system approaching its 40th birthday.
A list of NYP’s most recent and cumulative accomplishments continues to move the organization closer to realizing these benefits with ICD-10 reality just a shade more than six months away.
- Operationalize dual coding.In support of our NYPHS network hospitals, New York Methodist is now providing dual coded claims to our Eagle ICD-10 environment for purposes of claims testing and reimbursement analysis. NYP reinvest in its dual coding activity with 100% of staff coding in ICD-10 expected to begin in April.
- Complete end-to-end claims testing with payers. Our first end-to-end claim submission test to United Healthcare/Oxford continues to mitigate our risk with payers.
- Enable provider support of ICD-10 documentation requirements. Feedback for our Intelligent Medical Object (IMO) based documentation selection tool has been positive and has expanded to 12 physicians. High risk/high variability analyses at the code level are supporting focused education efforts as we prepare providers to document in support of ICD-10 concepts.
- NYPHS readiness.Collaboration continues with NYP providing our network hospitals with a dual coding volume analysis to support its own dual coding activities and ICD-10 readiness.
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.