ICD-10 is launching pad for modern technology

Providers and vendors discuss the topic ad nauseam, but payers are mostly mum when it comes to the massive ICD-10 coding overhaul.  

I hate to burst any bubbles, but if payers aren't already on the path toward the October 2014 deadline to convert to ICD-10, they have a lot of work to do.

"If you haven't already started your ICD-10 remediation program, you are going to fall behind quickly," Ray Desrochers, executive vice president at HealthEdge, told FierceHealthPayer. "And there will unlikely be further delays."

What's more, payers face millions of dollars in ICD-10 transformation costs and hundreds or even thousands of employee hours of effort. This is particularly true for payers with multiple non-integrated systems using older technology, such as core claims, secondary systems and interfaces to partner networks, Desrochers added.

So that's the bad news.

But the good news is that by implementing the ICD-10 coding system, payers can use it to support other healthcare models, including accountable care organizations and value-based health plans.

>>Read the full commentary on FierceHealthPayer