October 2009

ICD-10 Preparation – Are You Thinking About Getting Ready?

By Mary Jane McCracken, RN

ICD-10 implementation is scheduled for implementation October 1, 2013. Today is the first day of the rest of your transition. Have you acted yet? Have you taken that first step yet?

Your role as an HIM professional has never been more important. You are at the forefront of the IDC-10 arena. This is what you DO, and all eyes look to you for guidance and advice on how to manage a transition that’s bigger than anyone can possibly imagine. What are YOU going to do?

Breathe… You don’t have to know everything. You just have to know people (or people that know people) that can help move your organization into a position of readiness. Talk with people that have the ability and desire to drive change within your organization, people that have a stake in the outcome of the ICD-10 transition and implementation.

 “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”                                                                                   — Lao Tzu

Form an Interdisciplinary Team
What coders, managers, and upper level executives from your entire organization do you know who have a “can do” attitude? Think about how patient information flows through your system. What are the processes that employees follow? Identify areas that will be most impacted if the implementation does not go smoothly? These people or functional areas need to be a part of the team. For example:

• Registration/appointments
• IT systems
• Physicians
• Health information management
• Billing and accounting
• Data quality management/security/analysis
• Utilization review
• Software and hardware vendors
• Secondary providers (pharmacy, laboratory, radiology, etc)
• Payers
• Others

These areas and the people overseeing them are the organization’s primary stakeholders. Aside from these employees, there are many others that need to be considered for your team. The Chief Financial Officer or other executive(s) are Must Haves Their involvement and understanding of the complexity of ICD-10 transition and how it will affect almost every department within the organization is critical. Having a physician champion(s) is also a prerequisite for a successful transition. Physicians must be on board and aware of the need for specific documentation to support almost 10 times as many codes as there are now.

Select a Project Manager
The project manager is responsible for developing the goals and objectives of the transition team and to facilitate regular meetings. Communication is a key component of the project manager’s role. Because participants come to the team with different skills and experiences they will be more committed to the team if they are given a full briefing on the impact of ICD-10 implementation and understand the purpose of the transition team.

The project manager assists departments and functional groups to develop a timeline of actions, processes, and system changes that must occur within the organization. To ensure a successful implementation, a designated person is assigned to each process or action line and should provide status reports to the group at regular intervals.

Someone with a diverse HIM background is an ideal person to lead the group - or at the least, can be the most valuable player. Your inherent knowledge about the entire claims process from start to finish is critical – no one else has the big picture like you. Remember, you don’t personally need to have in-depth knowledge or be a subject matter expert about everything. You just need the ability to work together with a group on a regular basis, review progress, identify issues, and facilitate solutions.

This is the first in a series of 3 articles on transitioning to ICD-10. In our next article we’ll discuss Building Organizational Awareness for ICD-10. If you have specific questions or comments regarding ICD-10 transition, please email Mary Jane at mjmccracken@clinical-insights.com.

Editor’s note: Mary Jane McCracken, RN is General Manager of Clinical-Insights.

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