Tom Sullivan

Lest the healthcare industry not realize this simple fact: Although this does not garner much in the way of media attention, ICD-10 promises to improve the business of healthcare in numerous ways.

Continuing to weave its way into various corners of healthcare organizations IT architectures, ICD-10 has picked up some BPM (business process management) and BPO (business process outsourcing) support as vendors unwrapped new services designed to help with compliance.

Along with all the new codes and the higher level of specificity it brings, ICD-10 retains one category that, if abused, could negate many of the accompanying advantages, or at the very least create a billing mess: the unspecified option.

Running late with your HIPAA 5010 project? Then take small solace in the fact that you're not alone, at least according to a pair of surveys.

As part of a broad campaign titled “ICD-10 Changes Everything,” the American Academy of Professional Coders has sketched a road map providers can use to reach ICD-10 compliance and do so by the government-mandated deadline.

It might be that IT or finance guys lead the ICD-10 charge, but there's little disputing who the foot soldiers are: medical coders.

Despite the suggestion by some industry heavyweights, CMS (The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) did not roll ICD-10 into the Meaningful Use final rule.

It's a fair question, whether or not healthcare organizations can even meet the mandate on time, but that doesn't mean there's a clear answer – yet.

Although HIPAA 5010 essentially serves as the EDI pre-cursor to ICD-10, the new transaction standard also brings a fistful of its own noteworthy advantages.

For those healthcare organizations that don't yet have a picture of the advantages ICD-10 will bring, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has outlined some of the most important ones.