ICD-10: Less Than One Year Out

Matthew Albright, Director, Administrative Simplification Group

Less than one year to implement ICD-10…so let’s talk.

No matter where you are in your transition, we hope you will take time this month to take some action on ICD-10. For its part, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is working closely with medical and trade associations, listening to their challenges and working collaboratively with them on solutions.

If you are a provider, payer, or other health care entity, you should prepare for your ICD-10 transition now. A large part of that preparation includes having conversations and building collaborations with your trading partners and vendors, as well as with your peers and professional associations. By communicating and working together, we can move toward a successful transition to ICD-10 that will improve the detail of data captured through coding and facilitate patient care coordination across clinical settings—a goal that is shared by many other CMS eHealth initiatives.

As we enter the final year of the ICD-10 transition, CMS is developing additional resources and increasing outreach to providers, payers, and vendors to help ensure industry readiness by October 1, 2014.

Based on feedback from medical and trade associations and other stakeholders, we have developed a variety of ICD-10 resources for Providers, Payers, and Vendors. These resources cover topics ranging from a basic introduction to ICD-10 to Continuing Medical Education/Continuing Education courses with a roadmap and guide for small practices. For a more in-depth explanation of how to guide a practice, hospital, or payer organization through the ICD-10 transition, CMS has created the Online ICD-10 Guide, which can be found on the Provider Resources page. The ICD-10 website also offers checklists and timelines, as well as FAQs, guides, and tips geared toward various audiences. CMS also attends conferences and hosts online events, to educate and encourage providers to transition to ICD-10.

Our health care partner associations also offer resources and training on ICD-10 designed specifically for their members. Check the Provider Resources page for a list of some partner associations that offer ICD-10 resources.

With less than one year to go before the October 1, 2014, transition date, now is the time to talk to others and make progress on ICD-10.