ICD-10 Consulting

The ICD-10 compliance date has been set for October 1, 2013.  The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has mandated that all healthcare payers, providers, vendors, and others that currently utilize ICD-9 convert to ICD-10.  While the deadline is still out on the horizon, NOW is the time to begin planning your implementation strategy to ensure a successful ICD-10 transition.

Why think about ICD-10 now?

• ICD-10 will affect nearly every function in the healthcare value chain and it is critical to understand the full impact and magnitude of the change on your specific organization.
  The extent of the impact of this change is projected to be as great as or greater than the implementation of the HIPAA standard transaction set implementation.
• Significant process assurance and technology testing will be required in advance of the deadline to ensure proper compliance.

Himes Consulting Group (HCG) offers two specific services to assist healthcare organizations work through the preparation and execution of their ICD-10 initiatives:

1. ICD-10 Impact Analysis –This service is a comprehensive review of all the business processes and technology touch points that will be affected by the implementation of the ICD-10 code sets. The outcome is an actionable implementation approach to address all of the business processes, technology and partner relationships impacted by the ICD-10 implementation.
   
   
2. Program Monitoring Framework – This offering uses the results of the Impact Analysis and combines it with our proven project management and monitoring methodology complete with:

• Executive and staff level communication plans
• Progress checkpoint briefing documentation
• Cross-initiative risk mitigation strategies and methods
• Issue identification, resolution and migration strategies

The benefit and outcome is the use of a proven methodology to implement large change and a fact-based, ongoing assessment of the progress of the ICD-10 implementation up to and including the testing of the new process and technologies.

For more specific information regarding the ICD-10 transition, please be sure to read our “News You Can Use” article “THE TIME IS NOW TO FORMALIZE YOUR ICD-10 INITIATIVE!”