The International Classification of Disease (ICD-10) was created by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a system of coding that notes diseases, symptoms, abnormal findings, and external causes of injury. While the rest of the world has adopted this 10th revision, the United States is the only developed nation that is still using the previous ICD-9 system, which was published more than three decades ago for morbidity data and Medicare and Medicaid claims. Once again Congress has delayed the implementation of ICD-10, but it hasn't stopped some companies to commit to the development schedule. One of these organizations is ADP AdvancedMD, provider of all-in-one, cloud electronic health record (EHR), practice management, and medical scheduling software as well as medical billing services.
The company announced participation and successful completion of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ICD-10 Testing Week as well as it support of the March 31 vote by Congress to delay the implementation of ICD-10 and the signing of the bill by President Barack Obama on April 1.
Migrating to ICD-10 diagnosis codes will affect the healthcare industry as a whole, requiring time and effort that will increase operational costs across the board. It will affect physicians, insurance companies, Medicare and Medicaid and everyone else practicing medicine or providing medical related services.
"We believe the delay of the October 1, 2014, ICD-10 deadline was a welcome reprieve to those private practices struggling with migration tasks. We remain committed to our ICD-10 development schedule, releasing features that will guide our clients through their practice implementation process and enabling their participation in testing cycles with insurance carriers, as they become ready," Said Raul Villar, President, ADP AdvancedMD.
The solution ADP AdvancedMD provides is designed to offer a dual coding feature that allows its customers to still use ICD-9 for its day-to-day activities and at the same time be able to carry ICD-10 tests. By allowing organizations to carry out these tests, the company is providing a platform to let them get prepared when Congress passes the implementation of the 10th revision.
The company has been conducting testing with its customers and in early March its clients participated in a CMS testing week, in which all claims from physicians were acknowledged and accepted by Medicare, highlighting the level of preparedness of AdvancedMD customers.
Steven ZoBell, CTO and VP of Product Development, ADP AdvancedMD recommends for organizations to be prepared by simulating practices of proper documentation and coding for delivering clean claims. He recommends organizations to begin preparing for the time when ICD-10 go-live date comes around by doing the following:
- Analyze and confirm top revenue-generating codes.
- Determine which of your most common procedures and diagnoses will be impacted by ICD-10.
- Check practice documentation habits -- do they support the new, higher level of specificity ICD-10 will require.
- Confirm whether financing is appropriate for your practice.
The company is providing free ICD-10 practice readiness assessment; ICD-10 financial assistance program flyer; ICD-10 webinar featuring AdvancedMD product enhancements; and subscription to receive ongoing ICD-10 updates.
Edited by
Cassandra Tucker
