Healthcare Providers: Avoid Disruption From ICD-10 Migration

On October 1, 2015, the US Department of Health and Human Services mandate will come into effect and require all healthcare claims flowing to both public and private payers to be coded using the ICD-10 codes for diagnosis and procedures. The United States Congress, with the President's signature, moved the date for this migration to ICD-10, prior to that CMS had already moved the date twice. Migrating processes, knowledge, and systems from the simpler and less granular coding standards to the new ones affects the US healthcare system from end to end. How should a healthcare CIO help ensure a smooth transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10? While both payers and providers face great risks, this report focuses on provider risk and gives seven best practices a CIO should do in order to mitigate these challenges. Because the US Congress has given the industry this extra year the move to ICD-10 should be viewed as a business technology (BT) opportunity for those that were prepared and a respite to those that were not.