HIMSS Calls for Nationwide Collaboration on ICD-10 Implementation

By collaborating on a national scale, the cost of implementation of ICD-10 can be reduced for all, according to healthcare information technology think tank, HIMSS G7.

HIMSS G7 is a “thought leadership assembly” consisting of healthcare provider, health plan, bank, government, consumer, employer, and technology firms, that meets three times per year to discuss and create recommendations around “key IT projects to positively transform healthcare.”

One of the organization’s pet projects for many years has been implementation of ICD-10. Last week HIMSS G7 issued it’s latest report, ”Implementing ICD-10 by the Compliance Date: A Call to Action,” in which it outlined ”four industry recommendations and next steps to  best leverage the new timeline, mitigate risks, and ensure minimal disruption to healthcare operations and ICD-10 revenue.”

The four recommendations:

• Achieve broad stakeholder support for an ICD-10 Pilot Program with end-to-end business process testing. HIMSS G7 recommends creation of up to four regional “solution centers” where standards can be developed “test alternative implementation approaches, producing metrics around implementation impacts, resource needs, costs, and outcomes, while identifying critical test cases and scenarios.” This information, once created, would be shared to all. HIMSS G7 does not say who should fund these centers.
• Accelerate vendor readiness supporting health plans, providers, and other vendors. In a somewhat self-serving proposal, HIMSS G7 recommends itself as a solution, suggesting that vendors sign up with its VitalVendors service. It also promotes “widespread dissemination of the AMA/MGMA directory of ICD-10 practice management system software vendors.”
• Significantly expand education focused on independent physician groups and providers. To increase awareness of ICD-10 implementation among small- and mid-size providers, HIMSS G7 recommends that at least 20 percent of those participating in any ICD-10 pilot programs be from that demographic.
• Recognize the cooperating parties, which include the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), National Center for Health Statistics, (NCHS), American Hospital Association (AHA), and American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), as the “single source of truth” for accurate and consistent coding. Not only does HIMSS G7 ask for these organizations to be recognized, it also recommends that make themselves available to answer questions and help providers with ICD-10 implementations.

Interested in ICD-10 implementation? Read insidePatientFinance’s expedited timeline for implementation here.