AHIMA Conference News

Physician Panel Tackles ICD-10

By Lee DeOrio

What do you get when you place a panel of physicians in the same room with query-loving coders? Well, it wasn’t exactly fireworks but it was certainly entertaining. That was the case at one of the highlight sessions at the recent AHIMA convention in San Diego.

Moderated by Garry Huff, CEO of Huff DRG Review Services, the discussion focused on the experiences of five physicians who were trained on the nuances of ICD-10. For the most part, the experience left the group with a greater appreciation of the work done by coders and clinical documentation improvement specialists.

Among the takeaways were the following:

• PCS is a monster.
• Coders should be more visible.
• The panel came to appreciate that there’s a whole other world out there in terms of documentation.
• Physicians speak a different language than coders.

As far as query techniques go, the panel strongly recommended finding a physician champion to spearhead the cause. Better yet, get physicians to provide the training, specialist to specialist.

— Lee DeOrio is editor of For The Record.