The financial consequences for those healthcare organizations that are unprepared to make the ICD-10 transition are clear--if payers demand ICD-10 codes and an organization can't comply, that organization won't be getting paid. But there are financial rewards in successful implementation, as well.
"I don't think any of us believe there's a snowball's chance that our reimbursement is going to increase," says Stephen Stewart, CIO of Henry County Health Center in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, who is one of the four HIT experts on FierceHealthIT's exclusive ICD-10 preparedness panel at this year's HIMSS conference in Las Vegas. (The breakfast panel requires special registration and takes place Feb. 22 from 7:00 - 8:30 a.m.)
"So what we're really talking about is minimizing the decrease. But our win comes from producing better outcomes and reducing costs as a result."
Stewart will be joined on the panel, "ICD-10 Readiness for Hospital Leaders," by Drexel DeFord, senior vice president and CIO at Seattle Children's Hospital & Research Institute; Carole A. McEwan, ICD-10 migration project manager at SSM Health Care; and Roy Foster, director of regulatory compliance practice at Cerner.
Click here to register for this breakfast event, presented by FierceHealthIT.