Annual Conference Preview: ICD-10 is Delayed. Are You Making the Mistake of Delaying Your Preparation?

WHY SOMEONE SHOULD ATTEND HCAF’s 2014 ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND TRADE SHOW:

Don’t miss Jennifer Warfield’s presentation, “Celebrating ICD-10: A New Tradition of Codes,” and learn how to maximize the extra ICD-10 preparation time for the survival of your agency.

The Senate’s recent vote to delay ICD-10 has taken the home health industry by storm and shock. With a new implementation date of Oct. 1, 2015, administrators, directors, CEOs and nurses now have been given a second chance to ensure their agency survives the transition. As we continue forward, it’s important for agencies to rethink their “preparation” game plan. This additional training time should not go to waste. ICD-10 cannot be delayed forever and should be viewed as a postponement, not an end.

Although agencies have spent countless hours, dollars and energy in proper preparation for the 2014 implementation and despite the delay, it is important to keep staff members up to date with continued ICD-10 education. This delay will allow coders (both seasoned and novices) more time to prepare, review processes and decide which training method will be the most effective. Keep in mind that coding correctly has more use and benefits than just getting the diagnoses correct on the OASIS. Correct codes are essential for accurate documentation and risk adjustment. Additionally, codes are used universally for data collection, research and developing best practices.

On-site and online ICD-10 training has become a significant source of education for numerous home health professionals nationwide. Most professionals who attend ICD-10 training courses, learn about the numerous, significant differences between ICD-10 and ICD-9 and fully understand how long it will take to become proficient in ICD-10 coding. Even the most seasoned ICD-9 coders have concerns and are glad that they started training early. These early trainees can attest to the fact that when considering that the new code set will now consist of approximately 70,000 codes, as opposed to the current 14,000 codes, finding the correct one will understandably require more time.

Now is the time to get your agency on the right track with proper preparation and education. There are many routes that agencies can take to assure that they are properly prepared for ICD-10, such as online educational webinars or a private on-site workshop. As PPS Plus Software’s education director, I have been crisscrossing the country, conducting ICD-10 training sessions for home health agencies and associations nationwide. Additionally, I am over halfway through a 9-part ICD-10 webinar series that I am conducting for PPS Plus Software, which began this past January and will wrap up in September of this year. To register for my next ICD-10 webinar, please do so by clicking here. Additionally, if you would like to request a private webinar or on-site workshop, please fill out the education request form here.

When we are finally given the green light to implement ICD-10, we can transition into ICD-10 with confidence, knowing we have utilized all the available educational resources to properly educate ourselves and become ICD-10 experts.

If you would like to learn how PPS Plus Software’s OASIS analysis software and team of coding experts can help you with ICD-9 and prepare for ICD-10, please call (888) 897-9136 or info@ppsplus.com. You can also visit PPS Plus Software’s website at www.ppsplus.com.

Registration for HCAF’s 2014 Annual Conference and Trade Show is open! Register today to attend great presentations from Jennifer Warfield and many other nationally recognized home care experts. Click here to go to our 2014 Conference Website

About PPS Plus Software

Find OASIS errors and clinical inconsistencies quickly and easily with PPS Plus Software’s industry-leading OASIS analysis software, featuring thousands of alerts to help you achieve clinical and financial accuracy. PPS Plus Software also offers exceptional benchmarking services, education and consulting services, coding and OASIS review services, as well as HHCAHPS services by Deyta.

©2014 Jennifer Warfield. All rights reserved.
No portion of this material may be reproduced in any form without the advance written permission of the author.

Summary of Changes for the OASIS C-1

As noted in a previous report, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has issued a draft version of the Outcome and Assessment Information Set (OASIS) C-1.

The proposed version – OASIS – C1 – reflects changes to accommodate coding of diagnoses using the ICD-10-CM coding set that take effect Oct 1, 2014. Additionally, revisions reflect issues raised by stakeholders – such as updating clinical concepts and modifying item wording and response categories to improve item clarity.

Further, CMS has removed items not currently used for payment, quality, or risk adjustment to reduce the burden associated with the OASIS data collection.

Below is a summary of the key changes to the OASIS C-1 assessment instrument.

Home Health IT Vendors Detail Their ICD-10 Transition Status

On October 1, 2014, home health agencies are required to bill Medicare and other health insurers using ICD-10 codes to report medical diagnoses instead of ICD-9 codes. From Medicare’s perspective, the new codes will enhance the ability of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to monitor quality, safety, and efficacy of care, monitor resource use, and prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse. We hope that it will also reduce Medicare and other payer’s need to request additional documentation to explain an individual’s condition.

CMS Issues ICD-9 to ICD-10 Transition Claims Instructions

Even though the transition to ICD-10 is not until October 1, 2014, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has released instructions/guidance regarding the transition. As additional information is released it will be provided in HCAF publications.

A special MedLearn Matters article addressing the transition was recently released. The article, SE1325, provides the following information for home health and hospice providers:

Is ICD-10 Excessive? Implementation Not Keeping Up with Timeline

By Susan D. Hall, FierceHealthcare

Congressman Ted Poe (R-Texas) railed against the level of specificity in ICD-10 on the House floor Wednesday, including its nine different codes reflecting injury inflicted by a turkey and three ways to be injured by a lamppost.

Poe argued that the new system is excessive. It expands the 18,000 codes in ICD-9 for various injuries and diseases to more than 140,000 codes.

“Seems nine codes for a turkey assault is a bit silly,” Poe is quoted in The Hill.  “It’s red tape, it’s bureaucracy, and this is what happens when clueless big government here in Washington starts telling people out in the workplace, doctors and patients, what they must do and when government intrudes into our lives with more regulations.”

Registration Open for the Medicare National Provider Call on Transitioning to ICD-10 in 2013

Will you be ready for ICD-10 on October 1, 2014? Join CMS experts on April 18 from 1:30 to 3:00pm ET as they discuss ICD-10 planning and preparation strategies. Following the presentation, CMS representatives will be available for a question and answer session.

Agenda:

• Planning for transition to ICD-10
• Claims processing
• National implementation issues
• National Coverage Decisions
• Outreach

The target audience for this call includes medical coders, physicians, physician office staff, nurses and other non-physician practitioners, provider billing staff, health records staff, vendors, educators, system maintainers, laboratories, and all Medicare FFS providers.

AHCA: ICD-10 Impact Assessment Survey Now Available

In preparation of the nationwide ICD-10 implementation date of October 1, 2014, the Agency for Health Care Administration, along with its fiscal agent, HP Enterprise Services, invites home care providers to participate in a series of short ICD-10 surveys. Your participation will help AHCA better understand your concerns and needs as the Agency works toward a successful implementation.

CMS Releases ICD-10 Checklists and Timelines

To help you prepare for ICD-10, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has released new checklists and timelines for small and medium provider practices, large provider practices, small hospitals, and payers. These resources are designed to give you a high-level understanding of what the ICD-10 transition requires and how your ICD-10 preparations compare with recommended timeframes.

Planning for ICD-10: Working with Clearinghouses and Billing Services

All claims for health care services provided on or after October 1, 2014, must contain ICD-10 codes. As you prepare for the ICD-10 transition, contact any third-party billing services that you use to make sure they are actively planning for ICD-10.

As you reach out to your clearinghouse or billing service, you may want to ask…

Why & When Should I Care About ICD-9 vs. ICD-10 Coding?

By Sparkle Sparks & Annette Lee

Part 1: By Sparkle Sparks, PT, MPT, COS-C

Senior Associate Consultant, OASIS Answers, Inc., AHIMA Approved ICD-10 Coding Instructor

Last week, CMS confirmed through final rule publication that the implementation date for ICD-10 has officially changed to October 1, 2014. We all know that codes (currently of the ICD-9 variety) are a required part of our medical documentation. Many of us participate in one way or another in deciding which codes go where. But what do they really mean and how careful should we be in selecting them? When you consider what they’re used for the answer can be stunning.