What is your practice doing this week to prepare for ICD-10?

October 1, 2015 will be here before we know it and preparedness for that event cannot be over-stated. This week and for several weeks to come, your practice would benefit from 3 steps of preparedness:

1. Parallel coding – every encounter you now code in ICD-9 should also be coded in ICD-10.
2. Check documentation requisites for ICD-10 coding for those encounters and provide feedback to provider
3. Continue to add to your cross reference list for your practice.

These three steps will accomplish a couple of things. One of the biggest issues at “go live” will be a slowdown in coding and billing, which will result in a slowdown of cash flow. If your practice is already coding in ICD-10 for the most common visits, procedures, encounters and has invested time in proper documentation to back up the coding, there will be no slowdown and cash flow will not be negatively impacted.

Sounds easy doesn’t it? It isn’t. These three steps will require a person in your practice dedicated to the ICD-10 Conversion process, even if your practice is small. Someone who has gone through the ICD-10 training, understands the uniqueness of your practice and is developing cross-over codes for your most used ICD-9 codes. It will also require them to spend time with documentation, provide feedback, re-test and go through process again and again to make sure its accurate and timely.

Your practice should be carrying out these 3 steps each and every week to ensure practice confidence. Practice confidence will alleviate conversion confusion, documentation scramble and most importantly cash flow slowdown.

The natural upside to this readiness will be better patient flow through this difficult and complicated process and fewer patient mishaps as a result. If you are not yet parallel coding, think through and implement a plan to do so this week. If you need help getting started, give us a call. Medical Management Services can smooth your way through ICD-10 conversion.

In order to help you get started, download our FREE mini book, “A Successful ICD-10 Conversion.” In this book you will find helpful tips on the process of ICD-10 conversion, a conversion timeline, and some useful information about ICD-10. If you have any questions, feel free to give us a call or email. We are anxious to speak with you and to get you going in the right direction.