Dear Clients and Friends,
In June, Farzad Mostashari, National Coordinator for Health IT at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), reiterated that the ICD-10 implementation deadline (October 1, 2014) will not change and there are no more extensions in the offing. For those of us who were around to witness the grand effort to make all databases Y2K compliant, the magnitude of migrating to ICD-10 appears similar in scope and complexity.
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Businesses and governments around the globe spent $600Bn in anticipation of the Y2K problem and for the most part, it worked. We entered year 2000 with little disruption. Navigating the ICD-10 cliff will be more traumatic for both payors and providers, and it is the providers’ core operation that will see the most drastic impact. We will not be surprised if this migration significantly cut productivity in the healthcare industry for some time before the benefits are fully realized.
We hold the opinion that despite the extreme challenges faced with the migration, this change is necessary and its long-term benefits will far outweigh the short term pains of adoption. After all, the U.S. is the only industrial nation that still uses ICD-9 which was developed in the 1970’s. The practice of medicine has materially changed since then and many of the ICD-9 codes are now clinically inaccurate.
ICD-10 touches all aspects of clinical and administrative functions; over the long term, its granularity holds the promise of improving care, expediting payments for physicians and hospitals and providing better information and data opportunities. ICD-10 may be a regulatory requirement, but it is a giant step in the right direction.