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  ICD10 Watch
by Carl Natale


Why you need to have a serious discussion with healthcare vendors now

Posted on Wed, Jan 30, 2013 - 09:00 am

This seems to be a good time to be worried. Your vendors may not be ready for the Oct. 1, 2014, ICD-10 deadline.

Last week I posted an article by Kerry Martin, CEO and founder of VitalWare, that shared results from a survey of healthcare vendors. Eighty vendors planned to release ICD-10 compliant products in 2014. Of those products, 35 percent are due in the fourth quarter.

Yeah, that's after the deadline.

So I followed up with Martin and asked what was up.

"Yeah, we were a little surprised by that," said Martin. "What they told us is 'Well the government moved the date once, and we're expecting they're going to do it again.' "

That means the healthcare providers relying on those vendors have two choices:

  1. Bet on another deadline extension.
  2. Put Plan B into place.

"These are product that actually get bills out the door," for small hospitals and large physician groups, says Martin. That Plan B isn't going to be easy. Healthcare providers can't just turn around and use a different billing system. "If they don't start today looking for a different system to do that, they're kind of stuck."

It's going to take a lot of work to replace them. Which would have to start now.

[See also: ICD-10 Impact Assessments: How ready are you to assess vendor readiness?]

The process starts with contacting healthcare vendors and asking some questions such as:

  • Will a mapping or crosswalk strategy be used between ICD-9 and ICD-10 code sets?
  • What is your timeline for system modifications and what do those modifications include? (Make sure testing is part of the timeline)
  • Will you continue to support applications or are you discontinuing some products in the wake of the ICD-10 transition?
  • Are there any new hardware requirements associated with ICD-10-related software changes?
  • What are the costs involved? Will modifications and upgrades be covered by existing contracts?
  • Will customer support and training be provided for any new ICD-10-related functionality, and is there a charge?
  • Is there a phased approach for implementing ICD-10?

Martin says the key is getting regular information - which VitalWare provides. With that information, CIOs can make better decisions about how to proceed with the ICD-10 transitions and if alternative plans need to be made.

 


Comments

wITH icd 10 implimentation

Posted by jainasho@hotmail.com on Thu, Feb 14, 2013 - 03:05 am.
wITH icd 10 implimentation date is coming near you are correct for going for vendor readyness . One more thing which should keep in mind as some vendor may try to exploit the situation by developing and selling some ICD 10 products which may not add value to whole transition . ICD 10 transition should be very strategic and one should be very clear with the impact and requirement . All ICD 10 solution be scalable to ICD 11 as cost of conversion is very high

Hi I fully agree with you

Posted by jainasho@hotmail.com on Thu, Feb 14, 2013 - 04:39 am.
Hi I fully agree with you that its time to catch up with vendor for their ICD 10 readyness. to check ICD10 readyness we dont have any mechanism to verify their claim of readyness. Most of the Vendors are optimistic that ICD 10 date will again be postpone and they will still have time .

In my opinion there should be indepandant agency which should work with all vendors to verify their readyness .

You also need to workout solution provided by Vendor is constrained by time duration like some Vendor are providing tool for ICD 9 to ICD 10 without reading Clinical documentation, this conversion solution should be valid till Oct 1 2014 only as there wont be any ICD 9 code generation after that