WEDI Releases State ICD-10 Readiness Resources

The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI), a nonprofit authority on the use of HIT to create efficiencies in health care information exchange, announced the release of two new resources produced to ensure a smooth transition to ICD-10: the ICD-10 State Workers' Compensation Readiness List and the List of State Medicaid Sites with ICD-10 Information.

While the workers' compensation industry is increasingly aligning with HIPAA Transaction and Code Set rules, it is exempt from the HIPAA regulations and governed by state law rather than federal regulations. This results in state-specific requirements, making it more of a challenge for the national/regional payers, providers, vendors, and others to comply with these varying regulations. Because of the importance for stakeholder workers' compensation planning to be able to identify the ICD-10 adoption status of states, WEDI continues to augment its ICD-10 Workgroup resource page.

In an effort to assist the industry in identifying ICD-10 state readiness and reiterate the need for a transition plan, WEDI has written a letter to each state governor with a copy to Health and Human Services requesting the status of their state in adopting and/or transitioning to ICD-10. The WEDI ICD-10 State Workers' Compensation Readiness List will be updated accordingly based on states' responses.

"The WEDI Property and Casualty Sub-workgroup, among others, has been diligent about how we can inform the industry and help guide it toward clarity and cohesiveness. It is critical that industry stakeholders are aware of the status of states' ICD-10 readiness in order to implement the appropriate action plan to comply with both state and federal regulations come October 1, 2015, regardless of whether organizations are HIPAA covered entities," says Sherry Wilson, EVP and chief compliance officer of Jopari Solutions, Inc and cochair of the WEDI Property and Casualty Sub-workgroup. "Ensuring that all entities are adopting and or are aligning with ICD-10 will help further industry's movement towards streamlining and automating end-to-end workflow processes in order to improve administrative efficiencies, patient outcomes and lower cost across all lines of health care business."

Additionally, WEDI's ICD-10 Workgroup has compiled a collective list of state Medicaid websites with ICD-10 information that will be used as a reference document for the health care industry as the transition progresses.

More information on WEDI events and ICD-10 work products are also available on the WEDI website at www.wedi.org/workgroups/icd-10.

Source: Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange