When planning your ICD-10 transition, it's important to know that electronic health records (EHR) can help healthcare providers code more efficiently.

Look for efficiencies gained by:

• Allowing medical coders to access the records automatically.
• Making records and documentation more legible.
• Working with computer assisted coding (CAC) systems to speed up coding

But this isn't automatic. Part of your ICD-10 transition plan needs to include EHR training for medical coders, office personnel, clinicians and physicians.

Also, just because your EHRs can capture and store volumes of data, it doesn't mean you should. Take time in your ICD-10 impact assessment phase to design EHR templates that capture the right data. This data supports the documentation for the diagnoses and procedures that your staff most commonly encounter. These are the same diagnoses and procedures you're using to demonstrate ICD-10 coding and documentation.

This holds true for any new systems or tools you buy. You need to plan how IT fits into workflow.