By Jill Finn, Director, Product Management, Business Solutions at AdvancedMD;
and Board Member of the Healthcare Administrative Technology Association (HATA)
Have you ever thought about just how many moving parts there are in an ICD-10 implementation? The whole process can seem overwhelming to a practice and as a Practice Management/EHR vendor who needs to understand all of these different pieces, we’ve found that the best way to approach this is by breaking down the implementation into three main ingredients: People, Processes & Technology. So what do these mean, what’s your role and how do you formulate a plan for ICD-10 success?
People – Because a successful ICD-10 implementation affects all departments in your practice, awareness, preparation, testing and training should already be well underway. Medical coders and physicians aren’t the only people who require high ICD-10 competency. The key to preparing your entire staff for ICD-10 readiness is identifying what training is required by role, who conducts the training, budgeting for training costs and downtime, timing and finally, ensuring staff is adequately prepared and capable. ICD-10 readiness should include regular communications with management, IT staff and clinical staff about new procedures and new or updated software such as Practice Management and EHR systems. Staff also needs to be able to handle new requirements and forms, such as paper superbills, as part of the new billing, claims and documentation procedures.
Processes – The impact of ICD-10 on practices can vary depending on specialty, patient mix, top diagnoses and payer mix. Solo and other small practices will typically have greater risk and deeper impacts due to fewer resources and available funds. Moving to ICD-10 will require tremendous effort and process coordination of nearly every workflow. Processes to manage 120,000 new codes in a way that allows simple, accurate look-up and application of codes requires collaboration across the practice – including your IT systems and people. Productivity standards may have to be redefined, requiring additional coding staff, existing staff may need to be retrained, and providers may need to change how they document with more detailed diagnosis information.
Technology – This is the backbone of a successful ICD-10 implementation and gives your practice, people and processes a foundation to guide your operations and improve coordination of benefits and care. When properly configured to an ICD-10 environment, technology can help ensure critical processes are performed – such as documentation, coding, billing and bi-directional data transmission – all while ensuring third-party integrations can do the same. As the ICD-10 crossover date approaches, the risk of having non-compliant IT systems grows exponentially. By paying close attention to your existing IT environment and examining it against changes required to accommodate new data, new workflows and potentially new people prior to implementation, you can greatly increase your ICD-10 readiness.
As you can see, we all have a responsibility to understand the ingredients that make up an ICD-10 implementation, which will increase our knowledge in these areas and in turn, reduce risk. Look for opportunities for training, industry webinars and vendor testing. Some vendors are even offering ICD-10 Risk Assessments to assist practices in understanding the impact of ICD-10 and providing recommended actions based on the assessment results. All of these opportunities will support the success of the People in your practice performing Processes that are supported by your Technology. When these three ingredients are understood, planned for and in sync, we’ll be able to achieve ICD-10 success together!
About the Author: Jill Finn is the Director of Product Management for Business Solutions at AdvancedMD. She has over 10 years of experience in the Healthcare IT industry, leading teams to success across a diverse range of products, including Practice Management, Revenue Cycle Management and Human Capital Management. Jill has established several user advisory groups and user testing processes throughout her career to assist in delivering high quality products and achieving customer success. She is currently serving on the Advisory Committee for the newly formed Practice Management System Accreditation Program (PMSAP) led by EHNAC and WEDI and is a founding member of the Healthcare Administrative Technology Association (HATA) Steering Committee.