Medical practices in the U.S. are anxious about the ICD-10 transition, fearing it will impact their clinical, operational, and financial efficiency, with nearly 90% expressing concerns. While the transition involves an overwhelming increase in coding specificity and complexity, it is aimed at improving overall healthcare efficiency and will ultimately benefit physicians despite initial challenges. Medicalbillersandcoders.com offers support and resources to aid practices through the transition to ensure compliance and efficiency.

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Medical Practices Anxious About the Impact of ICD-10 Transition
While the recent one year extension (from October 1, 2013 to October 1, 2014) in deadline by the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) may somewhat have eased the pressure, yet the anxiety
still persists among the majority of medical practices in the US. The “anxiety” is about the impact of ICD-10
transition on their practices’ clinical, operational, and financial efficiency. Nearly 90% of the total
practitioners harbor this fear.
Then, is it really true? Or is it simply unfounded reason?
Well… the answer is both a “yes” and a “no”! True because ICD-10 is something monumental and is
happening for the first time in the US while the rest of the world started adopting decades earlier. Simply
look at the increase in diagnosis and procedural codes –17,000 in ICD-9 to some 155,000! Isn’t it simply
overwhelming? More than the volume, it is the specificity of coding that puts physicians at great difficulty.
The direct impact of this specific and detailed coding is that the entire practice management processes –
clinical documentation, billing, workflow and quality reporting – will assume higher order.
Clinical documentation should comply by HIPAA 5010 mandate, meaning physicians will have to do away
with the erstwhile 4010. Billing will become more streamlined and technology-driven. Physician offices will
now have to be thorough with electronic billing, and be able to generate them flawlessly. Coding will no
longer be as easy, and outsourcing coding professionals may just become the order of the day. Claim
processing, realization, denial management, adjudication, and A/Rs may tend to be even more distant and
complex to manage.
This multitude of challenges may necessitate process and systems upgrading. Additionally, people
managing these processes and systems may have to be trained extensively. Therefore, judging from this
angle, physicians are justified in their preliminary apprehension.
Conversely, ICD-10 is not intended to put physicians at disadvantage. The very aim of HHS’ ICD-10 is to
bring out efficiency across the nation’s macro health care delivery. The benefits of such macro-level
efficiency will slowly start to translate into tangible benefits to the physician community. While business is
going to be affected initially, it is going to be a temporary phenomenon. Therefore, judging from this angle,
physicians may be reacting a bit more injudiciously or reflecting herd’s view.
Irrespective of the standing, the transition is inevitable, and it may be too late for comfort once the
deadline ceases. And when it comes to entrusting your transitional phase to medical billing service
vendors, who better to intervene than medicalbillersandcoders.com, themselves. Believed to be a leading
source for ICD-10 transformation, we are engaged by physician practices of varying operational sizes. On
board our mission ICD-10 provides ongoing updates & training for the upcoming ICD-10 along with an
expert team of billing and coding professionals with deep insight into ICD-10 realm. Their professional
expertise when combined with our strategic understanding with technology and knowledge vendors makes
a convincing statement.
www.medicalbillersandcoders.com
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