pected costs, and other details of in- stalling the ICD-10 upgrades on com- puter systems. (2 months)
3. Contact payers, billing services, and clearinghouses to learn when their ICD-10 upgrades will be completed and when they’ll be ready to begin testing transactions using the new codes. Likewise, let these groups know when you expect to have their upgrades installed. (2 months)
4. Because the timing of system up- grades to a medical office depends on the readiness of the vendors serving that office, talk to vendors about up- grades early on. This also may help reduce ICD-10 transition costs. Up- grade other systems, such as quality reporting and public health reporting tools, as well. (3 months)
5. Once the upgrades are complete, con- duct internal testing to ensure the up- graded systems can generate transac- tions with the ICD-10 codes. Allow extra time for troubleshooting and working with vendors to address any obstacles. (2 months)
6. Update internal processes that sup- port coding. These include superbills, encounter forms, quality data collec- tion forms, and public health data collection forms. Take this time to review clinical documentation to en- sure it captures the necessary details of patient diagnoses. (2 months)
7. Train every staff member. The train- ing times should be staggered to pre- vent downtime in the practice. Cod- ing staff may want time to practice using the ICD-10 code set on sample claims, such as current claims, before the compliance date. (2 months)
8. Conduct external testing with clear- inghouses, billing services, and pay- ers to make sure they can properly send and receive ICD-10 codes in transactions. (6 months)
9. Switch to ICD-10 on Oct. 1, 2014. Payers will not accept claims with ICD-10 codes before Oct. 1 and will reject transactions that use the ICD-9 codes after Oct. 1, 2014. n
L AW FIRM PC
Crystal Zuzek is an associate editor of Texas Medicine. You can reach her by telephone at (800) 880-1300, ext. 1385, or (512) 370-1385; by fax at (512) 370-1629; or by email at
crystal.zuzek@texmed.org.
LeichterTxMedAdV3-3-2013-O.indd 1 October 2013 TEXAS MEDICINE 29 8/6/13 1:46 PM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60