The deadline for that ICD-10 conversion is not too much away. Although it may still be considered a year before your house health agency needs to help make the switch, waiting before the last second for the OASIS and 485s conversions is not advisable. The Department of Health insurance and Human Services has set to start dating ? of October 1, 2014, to provide home health companies enough time to result in the conversion from ICD-9 to ICD-10 coding. Which means you convey more time for you to prepare, however that year-lengthy extension should not be wasted.
There are began preparing already, its time for you to begin their work around the conversions which will affect your whole organization. You will need to create a transition team to help with this particular process or engage home health consultants to make certain you adhere to these complex changes.
The way the Transition to ICD-10 Coding Impacts Your House Health Agency
The ICD-10 conversion is required for home health agencies. Making the move will modify the reimbursement procedure that is adopted by insurance providers, payers, and also the intermediaries that handle individuals transactions for that Centers for Medicare and State medicaid programs Services. There won’t be any elegance period once this latest coding system goes live, which means you must get the home health agency ready to operate using ICD-10 coding through the October first deadline.
Claims which are posted without ICD-10 codes is going to be instantly rejected and you will be needed to resubmit all of them with the correct coding. This could cause reimbursement delays, reduced income, non-compliance penalties, and much more. You are able to avoid many of these potentially devastating financial issues when you are positive and becoming began immediately. Home health consultants who’re well-experienced in most regions of the ICD-10 conversion could make your transition faster, simpler, and hassle-free.
There are many steps your agency may take to assist make a solid reason for ICD-10 conversion, including:
• Identifying what systems you are by using their will migrate to ICD-10 coding, for example electronic health records, clinical documents, contracts, vendors, etc.
• Contacting your vendors to determine once they will upgrade their systems to ICD-10 to see whether there’s upgrading fee
• Modifying contracts and reimbursement schedules to mirror the conversion to ICD-10 coding
• Assessing your house health agency to determine the way the transition will impact your billing process-does it slow your billing process lower?
• Identifying the ICD-10 codes you’ll demand for services your agency provides most frequently
• Benefiting from the ICD-10 coding and training expertise of home health consultants and CMS online assistance
The significance of Acting Today
Get yourself ready for the ICD-10 conversion will need not only delivering your coders to classes. In case your entire agency isn’t ready for the modification you can face significant revenue losses-or worse, go under. It’s imperative for your house health agency to possess contracts and vendors up-to-date on all the ICD-10 coding changes.
