Like I’ve been saying, 2014 is going to be an extremely important year for our healthcare industry, with ICD-10 and Meaningful Use Stage 2 both coming into effect. I’ve already talked at length about the ‘meaningfulness’ of Meaningful Use so let’s talk about the other pressing issue, ICD-10.

Being in this industry for many years now, I’ve made quite a few friends whom I can talk to about some of the most critical healthcare issues of today. Everyone knows the amount of codes in ICD-9 and for that matter, ICD-10, but the important thing is the effect that this will have on  billing managers.

My friend Kenneth manages a staff of six including three physicians, one billing manager, one lab assistant and one medical home care coordinator. His primary questions about ICD-10 are related to care delivery and their practice’s overall revenue.

Physicians at his practice agree that ICD-10 will provide a more detailed documentation of diagnoses, but are not sure how their payments will be affected during the initial phase. Dr. Smith – the owner of the practice is really concerned about the impact that determining a patient’s diagnosis code for each encounter in a reasonable amount of time will have on his productivity. In addition, they will have to update their eSuperBills to accommodate the increase in ICD codes.

However, despite all the concerns, the most important thing for them is to successfully make the transition to ICD-10 with as little disruption as possible. He suggests all practices to start with small steps before addressing the more technological and procedural aspects of ICD-10. He says they have formed an ICD-10 focus team comprising of himself, a physician and their billing manager. Together, they are responsible for creating the whole ICD-10 roadmap including educating, testing, training, and implementation of the new system.

He says one of the first steps in their ICD-10 roadmap was to upgrade their in-house lab information system (LIS) which was required by their vendor. He told me how the CureMD support team helped them connect with their LIS system without any lab downtime.

After this interface was completed, Kenneth told me they will begin looking out for the best tools and programs to educate their clinical staff for ICD-10 implementation. Since additional documentation and coding will be required as per the new coding system, he said they have arranged seminars and educational workshops for both their providers and support staff. He also spoke of the difficulties of matching existing ICD-9 codes with their respective ICD-10 codes and guidelines for which ICDs and CPTs can be billed together. He also highlighted that CureMD support team is providing them with plenty of free educational material specifically designed for their specialty. However, he also said that they will be looking out for resources from the CMS, AMA and HHS websites to adequately prepare and navigate the ICD-10 training process.

Kenneth pointed out how he thinks having a close relationship with CureMD is crucial for their success. He said that they are relying on CureMD to guide and educate them throughout the transition and believes that they will do all they can to ensure a smooth cash flow for their practice.

Kenneth’s views make me believe that through the resources and support of an able EHR vendor, healthcare organizations and physicians should be confident of making a successful transition to ICD-10 while being able to deliver care for patients at the highest possible levels.