CMS is pushing hard to get everyone prepared for 10/1/2015. What is that date all about? That is the drop dead date for ICD-10 conversion. CMS says they are not pushing the date for compliance back any further and I know most of you are saying “Yeah right…that’s what they said last year”. Well in our opinion it’s got to happen this year. Check out CMS’ “Road to 10” website and tools. This site has been improving and improving over time and it looks to us like they are ready to pull the trigger.
http://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/ICD10/index.html
We know most of you are grudgingly preparing or angrily protesting the change but in reality this is one of the best things to happen in healthcare. ICD-10 coding is going to really go a long way to help agencies track the healthcare that is administered in this country accurately. Because ICD-10 coding requires the providers to be more specific about the patient’s medical condition, in the long term this can mean:
- More funding towards specific diagnosis and treatment
- More funding to areas of the country experiencing specific diagnosis ranges
- Increased research into specific diagnosis
- Analytics and reporting to help providers in their areas
By no longer supporting the “unspecified” diagnosis codes we get a clearer picture of the country’s predisposition to certain diagnoses in specific regions of the country. That way it won’t take someone accidentally finding that a small town in PA had less heart disease per capita than the rest of the country. It will be through precise analytics.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-rock-positano/the-mystery-of-the-roseta_b_73260.html
The rest of the world is already using ICD-11 and it is about time America attempted to catch up. Converting to ICD-10 is a step in the right direction.