Journal of AHIMA - June 2011

President’s Message

Embracing the ICD-10 Transition

By Bonnie S. Cassidy, MPA, RHIA, FAHIMA, FHIMSS

NOW IS THE time to embrace ICD-10 adoption and plan for your personal success and the future state within your organization. Healthcare organizations are depending on the HIM profession to do the heavy lifting and prepare the industry for ICD-10.

We will never walk this path again. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to achieve national recognition for contributing to the success of ICD-10 adoption.

The HIM profession is the largest workforce affected by the code set change, which makes you the core to your organization’s successful implementation.

Improved Documentation

ICD-10 offers an incredible opportunity to improve the specificity of clinical documentation. CDI programs will need to focus on the documentation needed to fully utilize ICD-10-CM/PCS. This will involve training the entire CDI team, including the clinicians responsible for clinical documentation.

Organizations can also use the ICD-10- CM/PCS code sets to create electronic content of the highest integrity crafted with physician documentation templates with a focus on the ICD-10 documentation requirements.

ICD-10-PCS is expected to have a stronger impact on documentation than ICD-10-CM. That is because ICD-10-CM is similar to ICD-9-CM, whereas ICD-10- PCS is completely different than ICD-9- CM. HIM leaders must support coding professionals in becoming ICD-10 power users and validators.

In addition, ICD-10 provides high-
er quality information for measuring
healthcare quality, safety, and efficacy;
provides more granular data for health
policy planning, quality and outcome
measurement, disease management,
clinical research, performance measure-
ment, and public health and bioterrorism
surveillance; and refines the current re-
imbursement system.

Committing to ICD-10

To be a leader in ICD-10 adoption, you must commit to improve efficiencies and lower administrative costs; reduce coding errors; increase use of automated tools for coding; reduce rejected and improper reimbursement claims; decrease claims submission and adjudication costs; and increase the ability to prevent and detect healthcare fraud.

This transition is no small undertaking, and there are important changes competing for your attention. Find ways to integrate your strategies for meaningful use and major IT implementations to include ICD-10 adoption.

To reach the vision of an interconnect-ed electronic health information system, we must employ standards, and current clinical terminology and classification system standards are among the most important factors to get there. HIM professionals are the leaders in employing classification standards consistently, and we must maintain them so they reflect current medicine.

ICD-10 is right around the corner, and delaying implementation is not an option. Your healthcare organizations need confidence that you are ready for this challenge and that the implementation date is solid so they can move forward without fear their resources are wasted.

AHIMA and its members are proud to move forward to a future state of ICD-10 adoption, which can only be successfully accomplished with your leadership and commitment to making it happen! ¢