Physicians Engage Billers and Coders to Ensure A Smooth ICD-10 Transition!
Physicians are gradually becoming aware about the magnitude of change required for the upcoming ICD-10 transition especially for both clinical systems as well as medical billing management. With such superseding requirements, increasing number of physicians are engaging medical billers and coders in the process to ensure an accurate and smooth ICD-10 transition.
Medical billers and coders involved in the ICD-10 transition process need to help set-up a process and put together a collaborative infrastructure; which will focus on preparing and motivating physicians for the ICD-10 challenge.
What to keep in mind for a smooth transition?
- Essential processes and infrastructure required for smooth ICD-10 implementation
- Education models which get right to the point, are not disruptive to the practice and provide meaningful information of what physicians need to do to make ICD-10 relevant to them
- Working collaboratively and continuously with specialists to help avoid disruption of workflow during the transition
Billers and Coders can assist in the following steps for 1CD-10 transition-
- Outlining the steps to follow to comply with ICD-10 requirements; by establishing a transition plan for the practice
- Ensuring that the practice management systems will be able to handle the upcoming changes; by helping physicians communicate with vendors regularly
- Categorizing where the practice uses ICD-9 currently; as any task where ICD-9 is used will be affected by the transition to ICD-10
- Helping in planning the staff training which includes type of training, departments requiring training and time lines
- Keeping the physicians updated about new trends and identifying best practices and opportunities for sharing resources by interacting with peers in other practices
- Advising physicians the right amount of cash reserve required to be kept; to help cover any possible cash-flow disruptions which can arise from claims processing after the transition
- Work towards processing all ICD-9 claim transactions before the deadline; to help evade a large backlog after the ICD-10 transition
Additionally Billers and Coders can be engaged in -
- Assessing ICD-10 resources from CMS, trade associations, payers and vendors
- Identifying areas of the practice which will be most affected with ICD-10
- Developing and creating an ICD-10 project plan for the healthcare organization
- Estimating potential costs of new practice management systems, coding guides and so on
- Reviewing contracts/proposals the practice has with payers and vendors
- Reviewing any changes to the clinical documentation requirements
The initial impact of ICD-10 on physicians’ post transition will be on clinical documentation; hence EHR platforms too would require conforming to ICD-10 and HIPPA 5010. Medical billers and coders, knowledgeable about the essential demands of clinical documentation under ICD-10; can be a crucial support to physicians. Moreover medical billers and coders will have to show a requisite level of coding competence, and also be resourceful in testing, implementing, and networking crucial technical interfaces to the medical billing management eco-system.
Medicalbillersandcoders.com – the largest consortium of medical billers and coders across all 50 US States is constantly updating their coders’ knowledge with ICD-10 transition techniques. Additionally, our unique training program on ICD-10 transition – offering webinars, forums, and online learning materials, and latest updates – works towards making this new role of medical billers and coders simpler and much more beneficial for both the providers along with the medical billers and coders.