The ICD-10 transition is about more than medical coding. It's part of a bigger picture. A picture that's not totally in focus.
[Read more: ICD-10 implementation a small part of the bigger picture]
But maybe more of it's becoming clearer. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is proposing to increase payments to primary care providers by as much as 7 percent as part of the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) for 2013. (The proposed rule (PDF download) proposed rule will appear in Friday's, Federal Register. CMS will accept comments until Sept. 4 and publish a final rule by Nov. 1.)
This is an incentive for improving patient care:
"CMS noted that it is proposing for the first time to 'explicitly pay for the care required to help a patient transition back to the community following a discharge from a hospital or nursing facility.' Under the proposed rule, CMS would make a separate payment to a patient’s community physician or practitioner to coordinate the patient’s care in the 30 days following a hospital or skilled nursing facility stay. "
CMS is encouraging patient care more than procedures performed by specialists. And maybe the American Medical Association (AMA) will look at the new payments as a way to ease the financial burden of ICD-10 implementation.
Carl Natale blogs regularly at ICD10Watch.com.