ICD-10 Coalition to Tackle Capitol Hill Tomorrow

Richer health data, cost effectiveness, and better patient care—all are part of what the ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS coding system can help deliver. Why the new coding standards should be adopted on October 1, 2015, is the subject of a Capitol Hill briefing taking place at 1:30 pm on Tuesday, September 23 at the Rayburn House Office Building, Room B-318.

Hosted by the Coalition for ICD-10, a broad-based health care industry group, the briefing is open to members of Congress, their staff, and the public.

ICD-10 offers more specific codes, such as a way to note which side of the body was injured, as well as codes for diseases that hadn’t been discovered 30 years ago when the current coding system, ICD-9, was put in place. The United States is the only industrialized country that has not adopted ICD-10.

“It’s remarkable how many advances we’ve seen in health care in the last 30 years—now it’s time to have a documentation system that reflects them,” says Sue Bowman, MJ, RHIA, CCS, FAHIMA, senior director of coding policy and compliance at AHIMA. Bowman will moderate the panel. “It’s time to move forward with ICD-10 and start reaping the health benefits this system can guide us toward.”

ICD-10 gives higher quality information for measuring service quality, outcomes, safety, and efficiency, and will expand the capacity of public and private payers to keep pace with changes in medical practice and health care delivery.

In addition to Bowman, speakers will include the following:  

• Gail Eminhizer, CMM, CGCS, HITCM-PP, practice administrator at Digestive Health Associates of Northern Michigan, PC in Traverse City, Michigan, and national advisory board member of the Professional Association of Health Care Office Management;
• John S. Hughes, MD, professor of medicine at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut;
• Jeffrey F. Linzer, Sr, MD, professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta;
• Thomas Pacek, vice president of information systems and CIO of Inspira Health Network in Bridgeton, New Jersey;
• Dennis Winkler, director of technical program management and ICD-10 for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan in Rochester Hills, Michigan; and
• Sandra J. Wolfskill, FHFMA, director of health care finance policy and revenue cycle MAP for the Healthcare Financial Management Association in Chardon, Ohio.

Source: AHIMA