Janet Sayers, HIM/compliance manager at Applied Management Systems, Andrew Adams, senior manager at Ernst & Young and Dan Roy, ICD-10 project manager at MaineGeneral Health warned against these five potential pitfalls:
1. Reporting: Don’t take managers at their word when they tell you that their reporting won’t be affected by ICD-10. Dig a little deeper, and you’re likely to find they don’t understand things well enough to know just how much they will be affected.
2. Overlooking impacted areas: It’s not just the clinical side of hospitals and health systems that will be hit hard by ICD-10. Some experts suggest that the only areas that won’t feel the effects are the cafeteria and housekeeping.
3. Teaching old dogs new tricks: Don’t underestimate the impact on your organization’s coders who could need as much as 50 hours of training to become comfortable with ICD-10’s codes. Incentivize and support your coding staff.
4. Preparing for impact on productivity: Learn a lesson from Canada, which reports it took six months to return to pre-conversion productivity levels. Budget for reduced productivity.
5. Communicating with IT vendors: Smaller vendors, in particular, may not be as prepared for ICD-10 as they let on. You need a contingency plan because if a vendor is not ready in time, it will negatively impact your organization.
Rene Letourneau, Managing Editor, Healthcare Finance News