Noblis Health Innovation Manager Todd Couts addressed The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) ICD-10 Vendor Conference on 27 April 2010. More than 140 vendors participated in the conference, which included presentations on CMS’ preparations for the changes, as well as research and outreach efforts. Sessions included a discussion of the multimedia campaign that will educate the industry on ICD-10 and seminars on issues such as how ICD-10 will affect third party billing and clearinghouses.
Couts discussed the impact of ICD-10 on the federal government and state Medicaid agencies. Inside CMS, ICD-10 would affect 70 different IT systems and hundreds of different projects. While the most critical effect will be on claims processing, it will not just affect billing. The adoption of ICD-10 will also affect the way the government manages its care, including the myriad ways CMS manages and assesses patient quality.
In the presentation, Couts detailed ways to deal with the change. Whatever the transition strategy, success will come from managing the risks, tracking the progress and then testing the new systems.
View the presentation.