The Importance Of ICD-10 Coding

By Dale Jacobs


The importance of being prepared for the ICD-10 conversion is becoming more crucial each day. An ICD-10 preparation plan should already be in progress for any organization that is involved in health care. While a "one size fits all" approach isn't appropriate for all businesses, an ICD-10 Readiness Assessment can help determine your needs. A readiness assessment specifically designed to identify and categorize all your processes, systems and data and how it will be impacted by the mandatory ICD-10 transition. This initial assessment provides the data needed to design a strategic plan to be put into place to prepare for the technology components of the ICD-10 implementation. Utilizing an advisory service can be the most cost-effective and efficient method of assessing where your business stands in readiness for meeting the ICD-10 rules and regulations.

Altegra Health offers a comprehensive ICD-10 Service to assist healthcare providers in every facet of ICD-10 implementation. Our professionals are uniquely qualified not only to provide guidance on ICD-10 and HIPAA 5010, but also to evaluate readiness for the changes, to recommend solutions and to assist with the implementation of those solutions. Conducting the readiness assessment will give indication of how interoperable your current system will be. Now is the time to systemize and make the necessary adjustments to ensure business operations are not interrupted.

Altegra Health has worked with healthcare providers and coders for decades to evaluate coding, workflow and processes and to assist in the implementation of best practices. In preparation for ICD-10 coding, an audit of your coding staff will determine their current accuracy levels and to evaluate their readiness for the upcoming new code sets. A review of records will establish the accuracy level of physician documentation and coding.

Whether you are in need of a full-spectrum ICD-10 support or merely an assessment of readiness, we can help. Our firm is very experienced with providing both general and detailed training sessions to our clients' medical staff members in all types of formats.

If needed, we offer training in the ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS classification systems, the application of coding principles and guidelines, and the appropriate usage of the medical records as a source document. An inventory of your information technology systems, applications, interfaces and data sources to identify any obstacles is the first step. The transition is forthcoming, how ready is your organization?




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