Many physician practices are ill-prepared for ICD-10, and health systems must ensure the right tools are in the hands of those who need them most, according to Bill Reid, senior vice president of product management and partners at SCI Solutions.
"Hospitals risk unsuccessful transitions if physician offices in their communities aren't ready," Reid writes for ICD10Monitor.com. Recent studies show that many still are not, despite the Oct. 1 implementation deadline looming.
For instance, a survey unveiled by the eHealth Initiative earlier this month showed that of 271 providers, half said they have conducted test transactions using ICD-10 codes with payers and clearinghouses. Only 34 percent said they have completed internal testing, while 17 percent have completed external testing.
Eighty-eight percent of test claims were accepted during the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid's second round of ICD-10 testing in April.
There are tools that health systems can use to ensure their "healthcare brethren" are moving forward with ICD-10, according to Reid. A cloud-based business management tool can help create a "crosswalk" to convert the ICD-9 code used most often to ICD-10 equivalents. The business management tools help ensure incidents are coded correctly, he says.
"These electronic bridges help ... make it as easy as possible for community physicians to send in accurate orders and referrals, with the correct codes being used from the start of that workflow," Reid says.
One scenario where this works includes if a patient needs to be scheduled for a CT scan. While the patient is at the practice, staff can use the management tool to schedule the order and while doing so select the prognosis which the program will then autopopulate the correct ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes.
The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange has warned that unless all industry segments move forward with implementation of ICD-10, "there will be significant disruption on Oct. 1, 2015."
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