ZirMed Launches www.StartStopICD10.com

New online web site and petitions seek to gather industry feedback on ICD-10 transition timeline

LOUISVILLE, Ky., March 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- ZirMed, a knowledge leader and preeminent provider of revenue cycle and information solutions for healthcare, today announced the launch of www.StartStopICD10.com in response to the February 14th announcement by the Center of Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) of a re-examination of the ICD-10 timeline. 

Recently, healthcare providers have raised concerns regarding CMS' requirement that all healthcare providers transition from the ICD-9 code sets to the ICD-10 code sets by October 2013. Concerns expressed by the American Medical Association and others range from the cost of transition to technological and training requirements. At the same time, other providers have indicated that any slowdown in the transition will essentially render useless the investments they have already made in preparing for ICD-10.

On February 14th, acting CMS Administrator Marylin Tavenner injected CMS into the debate by stating that CMS will "re-examine the pace at which we implement ICD-10" and "work together [with providers] to ensure that we implement ICD-10 in a way that [meets its goals] while recognizing concerns."

To better understand the debate regarding the transition to ICD-10, ZirMed has launched www.StartStopICD10.com.  The site is designed to gauge industry opinion and gather comments surrounding the timeline for implementation of ICD-10, as well as to provide feedback on how CMS should react. The site provides physicians, healthcare leaders and healthcare staff across the US the opportunity to sign one of three petitions urging CMS to either stop the implementation of ICD-10, to delay the implementation or to keep the current timeline for implementation.  

"With direct connections to hundreds of thousands of payers, providers and healthcare professionals, we are uniquely positioned to gather this information," said Kevin Weinstein, VP of Marketing for ZirMed.

The online petitions can be read and digitally signed from the website until April 30th. Each petition will then be published and shared with CMS, industry publications and congressional policy makers.

For more information please visit www.StartStopICD10.com.

About ZirMed

ZirMed is a leading provider of healthcare revenue cycle technology and information solutions. Serving 113,000 healthcare providers across all care settings who in turn provide services to more than 1 in every 10 Americans, ZirMed is a nationally recognized leader in understanding the flow of money and information in healthcare. ZirMed's solutions provide connectivity to virtually all healthcare and auto and workers compensation insurance companies in the country. Addressing the entire revenue cycle, ZirMed's offerings include eligibility verification, claims management, patient payment estimation, patient payment processing, online bill pay, online and offline statement delivery, innovative lockbox services, analytics, coding compliance, and more.  Delivered via a SaaS model, ZirMed's solutions are compatible with any industry standard Healthcare Information or Practice Management System, and can be used directly within the ZirMed domain or embedded within partner software applications.  ZirMed received a "Best in KLAS" ranking for 2011, is ranked among Inc. magazine's 500/5000 fastest growing companies and Healthcare Informatics magazine's Top 100 companies.  For more information about how ZirMed leverages the power of technology to help providers not just survive but thrive, visit www.zirmed.com.

SOURCE ZirMed