ICD-10 TRANSITION IS FRUSTRATING FOR MEDICAL PRACTICES

October 14th, 2015 - Adam Smith   
Categories:   Coding   Diagnosis Coding  

The dust has settled. ICD-10 is here. Now what?

ICD10 is finally here. And it is not welcome in healthcare circles. Healthcare organizations will have to grapple with thousands of new codes, high overheads and workflow disruptions. The real impact of the revised coding set will be felt in a few weeks from now. As it is still too early to analyse the effect ICD 10 is going to have on the reimbursement methods of insurers.

It is mayhem at the doctor’s office…

Physicians across the country are spending close to an hour every day, to enter ICD 10 codes. But surely a coder can enter and scrub codes? They can’t. As most of them are busy making calls to insurers! Frantic calls to check whether claims rejected a few weeks back need to be resubmitted in the coding set. Or whether the CMS promise to accept claims that have ICD 10 codes which may not be highly specific but still belong to the “right family”, holds water.

The phone wait times of insurers are also ridiculously long. One practice manager noted that her biller spent almost 4 hours on hold. That is almost half a day’s work lost. “I don’t know who is going to benefit out of ICD 10, certainly not me” rues Ellen Spandana the CFO of a paediatrics practice.

And the biggest roadblock is…

Hiring trained ICD10 coders. “A lot of this trouble could have been resolved if only if we had trained coders to handle this job” says Jarryd, the practice manger of a group practice. And it is by far the biggest roadblock that healthcare organizations face.

Where are the coders?

Post the roll out; there is a rush to hire certified coders who can handle the complexities and tripwires of ICD 10. But they are few and far between. And, yes, charge a bomb. According to a survey by AAPC medical coders had an 8.4% average increase in their salaries.

Experienced coders demand high pay packages. This could be a further blow for healthcare organizations that are already reeling under the revenue challenges of the recent reforms.Most veteran coders are unwilling to learn an entirely new coding method and prefer to retire early. The ever increasing coder shortage is growing more acute and wreaking havoc on the bottomline of medical practices.

It is not all gloom and doom.

Several ICD-9 to ICD-10 converter tools are making the job easier for medical practices. “At least some of the workload is lessened thanks to technology”, smiles Chris who manages a group practice in rural Arkansas. An increasing number of medical practices are turning to tools and apps to manage ICD-10 bottlenecks. “It serves as a strong stopgap solution for the time being, till we find a reliable offshore partner to outsource our coding services to” Chris adds.

Want a tool to simplify and quicken your coding process?

ThePracticeBridge Inc. has developed a smart and user friendly ICD 9 to ICD 10 conversion tool. Users can input ICD 9 codes they’ve used all along into the tool and get its corresponding ICD 10 match. To demo the tool click here.   

 

###

Questions, comments?

If you have questions or comments about this article please contact us.  Comments that provide additional related information may be added here by our Editors.


Latest articles:  (any category)

Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare - A Medical Coder's Perspective
December 26th, 2023 - Aimee Wilcox
We constantly hear how AI is creeping into every aspect of healthcare but what does that mean for medical coders and how can we better understand the language used in the codeset? Will AI take my place or will I learn with it and become an integral part of the process that uses AI to enhance my abilities? 
Specialization: Your Advantage as a Medical Coding Contractor
December 22nd, 2023 - Find-A-Code
Medical coding contractors offer a valuable service to healthcare providers who would rather outsource coding and billing rather than handling things in-house. Some contractors are better than others, but there is one thing they all have in common: the need to present some sort of value proposition in order to land new clients. As a contractor, your value proposition is the advantage you offer. And that advantage is specialization.
ICD-10-CM Coding of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
December 19th, 2023 - Aimee Wilcox
Chronic respiratory disease is on the top 10 chronic disease list published by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Although it is a chronic condition, it may be stable for some time and then suddenly become exacerbated and even impacted by another acute respiratory illness, such as bronchitis, RSV, or COVID-19. Understanding the nuances associated with the condition and how to properly assign ICD-10-CM codes is beneficial.
Changes to COVID-19 Vaccines Strike Again
December 12th, 2023 - Aimee Wilcox
According to the FDA, CDC, and other alphabet soup entities, the old COVID-19 vaccines are no longer able to treat the variants experienced today so new vaccines have been given the emergency use authorization to take the place of the old vaccines. No sooner was the updated 2024 CPT codebook published when 50 of the codes in it were deleted, some of which were being newly added for 2024.
Updated ICD-10-CM Codes for Appendicitis
November 14th, 2023 - Aimee Wilcox
With approximately 250,000 cases of acute appendicitis diagnosed annually in the United States, coding updates were made to ensure high-specificity coding could be achieved when reporting these diagnoses. While appendicitis almost equally affects both men and women, the type of appendicitis varies, as dose the risk of infection, sepsis, and perforation.
COVID Vaccine Coding Changes as of November 1, 2023
October 26th, 2023 - Wyn Staheli
COVID vaccine changes due to the end of the PHE as of November 1, 2023 are addressed in this article.
Medicare Guidance Changes for E/M Services
October 11th, 2023 - Wyn Staheli
2023 brought quite a few changes to Evaluation and management (E/M) services. The significant revisions as noted in the CPT codebook were welcome changes to bring other E/M services more in line with the changes that took place with Office or Other Outpatient Services a few years ago. As part of CMS’ Medicare Learning Network, the “Evaluation and Management Services Guide” publication was finally updated as of August 2023 to include the changes that took place in 2023. If you take a look at the new publication (see references below),....



Home About Terms Privacy

innoviHealth® - 62 E 300 North, Spanish Fork, UT 84660 - Phone 801-770-4203 (9-5 Mountain)

Copyright © 2000-2024 innoviHealth Systems®, Inc. - CPT® copyright American Medical Association