BACKGROUND

After deferring implementation dates multiple times, the US Department of Health and Human Services issued a final rule concluding October 1st, 2015 as the new compliance date to transition to the ICD-10CM code. Doctors and clinical staff were overwhelmed by the various changes they would have to make to their coding practices in order to get paid accurately for services rendered.

WHAT WE DID

We began an internal ICD-10 education process more than a year before the final rule date. The trainers began training others in the organization over several months to ensure that we help our clients transition to the new coding mandate. We developed specialty specific training curriculum which involved scenario-based ICD-10 cases that dealt with the services that our clients rendered routinely.
As we inched closer to three months of the final rule date, we trained our clients (doctors, clinical and administrative staff members) on ICD-10 as it pertains to their practices. We further provided educational material that they could use to get up to speed on codes that they needed to help us bill correctly.

OUTCOMES

While practices across the US faced challenges in getting paid correctly post-ICD10, ALL our clients received payments in time with zero denials related to ICD-10.