Poll Finds Dual Coding Top ICD-10 Concern

On October 1, the health care industry will be transitioning to ICD-10—which will be no simple feat. Merge Healthcare, a provider of innovative enterprise imaging, interoperability, and clinical systems that seek to advance health care, recently used its 2015 client conference, Merge Live, as an opportunity to ask its customers just how concerned they really are about their ability to manage the switch to ICD-10 coding.

Findings from this poll of 50 professionals found that about one-half of the attendees were more that 80% ready for ICD-10, 40% felt they were 50% to 80% ready, and only 10% said they were less than half ready. No one thought another delay was likely at this point.

Among those polled, the main concern was not the switch itself, but rather the interim period following the switch where they will likely have to use both code sets for billing.

Dual coding adds another layer of complexity to an already complex process, and requires a billing and financial system that can automate the workflow for applying the right code set to the right payer.

One option to address this issue is to implement a solution that helps users navigate through dual coding. For example, Merge Financials—a practice management solution that automates back office functions—has a system setting for each insurance plan that identifies the required code set and alerts the user when ICD-9 is required.

For more information, visit the Merge blog to read a post about the poll: www.merge.com/Blogs/Enterprise-Imaging-Blog/September-2015/ICD-10-What-does-the-Voice-of-the-Customer-say.aspx.

Source: Merge Healthcare