Worried about ICD-10? Relax, ICD-11 is on its way!

Picture courtesy of http://icanhascheezburger.com

Yes, just when you thought your life couldn’t get any more complicated and governmentally annoying, someone just had to say it… ICD-11.  Yes, after a 23 year process to integrate ICD-10 codes, from their inception, into our United States vernacular, there are already newer codes looming on the horizon.  Perhaps if we hadn’t waited so long to move into ICD-10, this wouldn’t be like dripping ice water down your sun-warmed backs. 

Stimulus Payments and Meaningful Use, Preparing for 2012

Guess what?
If you haven’t already registered and if you are not meaningfully using your EHR 2011 is no longer an option for you.  You needed to report for 90 days this year and you would have to have registered and been using by the beginning of October to qualify for the 2011 payouts.

Is it worth it?  Really? 
We can’t speak for each of you, but I can direct you to this nifty article “CMS pays out nearly $90M in MU incentives in September” at HealtcareITNews.

ICD-10: Gone are the Days

ICD-10—Potpourri:
General State of Readiness- How you can & should be Preparing for the Inevitable, Part 4 of 4

ICD-10 Heralds the Death of the Superbill 

 
This article goes into a bit more detail, but I think you can gather from the above discussions that a superbill just isn’t going to be super enough to cut it for ICD-10.  Gayl Kirkpatrick, from 3M HIS Consulting Services, gave an example from a hospital her team consulted with. "We took a two-page superbill in ICD-9 and translated that into ICD-10," Kirkpatrick said. "It became a 48-page superbill." (1)

ICD-10: Concerns & Preparations

ICD-10—Potpourri:
General State of Readiness- How you can & should be Preparing for the Inevitable, Part 3 of 4

“When healthcare transitioned to ICD-9 on Oct. 1, 1984, there was still great confusion 18 months later on how to submit the codes. There was great deal of frustration both on the provider side as well as the health plan side. There was also a huge lack of training to prepare the doctors for the transition to ICD-9. As a result, for almost a year, there were large drops in revenue.

I am seeing things now, for ICD-10, that I witnessed back then for ICD-9. A great deal of people have not even started their processes.” Ben Michelson, of Hayes Management Consulting ...(1.)

Why ICD-10?

ICD-10—Potpourri:
General State of Readiness- How you can & should be Preparing for the Inevitable, Part 2 of 4

This article “ICD-10 Implementation: Top concerns for healthcare providers” quotes Jim Jacobs, senior vice president and product management and health information management for QuadraMed. "If you want to understand outcomes and understand the protocols that are working, the protocols that have measured benefits, then you need quite a bit of specificity."

What is ICD-10?

ICD-10—Potpourri:
General State of Readiness- How you can & should be Preparing for the Inevitable, Part 1 of 4

The message is, as always, begin to prepare now and begin making the changes to how you document now, so that you are better prepared as a provider for ICD-10 and so your coders and billers will have the information they need to take care of you and the patients properly.

The International Classification of Diseases system will be updated from the ICD-9 to the ICD-10 standard on October 1, 2013.  These are the codes that are used in healthcare as a common language to describe the diagnosis, condition, or other reasons for a patient visit to the doctor or healthcare facility.  Now around the world ICD-10 has been used for years, the United States is one of the last places to implement this coding.

Do you have an Off-Site Back-Up and is it Current?

Hello east-coast!  We know you’ve been getting constant reminders about the hurricane all week.  Heck, I’ve received no less than 10 bulletins in the last two days from the CDC, FEMA, National Weather Service, and many others- And I’m in the MID-WEST!

Anyway- we just wanted to remind you (while you were packing to run away or boarding in to hunker down) to back up your data.  BUT, we don’t just want you to back it up- we also want to make sure that you have at least one off site copy as well.

The CDC is right:  have a plan, be prepared, and by golly make sure you have an extra off-site back up too. 

Oh, yeah- and stay dry!

New Changes to RAC Program

Per an article by Sheri Porter on the AAFP website, Medicare is making a change to the RAC programs that might help out family physicians and their offices, beginning January 3, 2012.

The Google Health Experiment is Shutting Down

For the last four years or so I’ve been watching in the background as Google Health came out, followed shortly thereafter by Microsoft’s Healtvault and others.  PHR (personal health records) – take e-healthcare to the individual patient.  This was before the ARRA and the new EHR and meaningful use initiatives, before many people even knew what an EHR was, let alone a PHR.  Like many things Google had found a niche and was grabbing it by the horns to make it play nice for the average Joe.  Now it is over… they recently announced that the service will be completely shuttered on January 1, 2012.  At that point you will no longer be able to add info, search or view information etc.  They are giving you until the same time the following year to download or port your information into a new place.  Other PHR solutions like Microsoft’s HealthVault are already promoting the ease with which you can move your Google Health PHP information into their systems. 

Genius Solutions 5010 Update

Genius Solutions is currently working with BCBS as a 5010 pilot tester (currently in Michigan).   We are working closely with BCSBEDI (MI) in testing 5010 format using 5010 test files.  BCBS is only working with about 100 pilot testers at this point and Genius is one of them.  At this time, only the pilot testers are allowed to submit 5010 test files into BCBSEDI.

Genius Solutions Inc. has sent test files from several of our providers into BCBS (MI) which are currently being tested and checked.  We are also hoping to continue to expand our testing within the next few weeks by starting to work with other payors and clearing houses as they become prepared to test. We will be ready to submit 5010 files come 01/01/2012.

Genius 2011 Fall Training Schedule Posted

Click here to download/complete and return the registration form to us.  If you have questions on any of the classes, please e-mail training2009@geniussolutions.com or contact Training at 586-751-9080 / 800-645-0955

EHR Stuff: All-in-one or Buffet-style? It’s your choice!

I’m sure you know how hard it is to find a good practice management (PM) system (when I say “good”, I mean gets you paid” AND makes your office life easier, not harder).  But now your life has just gotten complicated again.  Now you are being told that you need to have and use an EHR in your office.  Ok, even if you don’t give a hoot about participating in meaningful use.  The fact still remains that Medicare is threatening that if you are not meaningfully using an EHR by 2015 they are going to assess you a 1% penalty, with an additional percent being added each year up to 5% by 2020.  (Of course this could all change with the current state of healthcare and the influx or repeal of Obambacare.)  It is true.  There is a lot on the table with so many variables in play.  It’s more like a game of 52-card pick up than any organized card game.  (Seriously, have you ever tried to play Poker with someone who is playing Go Fish?)  Plus there are additional regional variations for Medicaid and third-party payers (Euchre anyone?).