Regardless of how prepared your practice is for the coming implementation of ICD-10, you may be somewhat overwhelmed with the number of tasks you've completed to get ready. The October 1, 2015 deadline seems as though it is going to stick this year, so if you are not in the process of preparing your practice for the big switch, you should start immediately. No matter your stage of preparation, at times like these, it's often good to take a second, step back and reflect on the fruits of your labors. With that in mind, check out some of the surprising side effects of ICD-10 implementation:

Between scheduling patient appointments, building a strong brand identity in your local market and ensuring that all the administrative odds and ends are taken care of on a daily basis, running a medical practice can be extremely hard work. Throughout this process, however, it's important to remember that one of the most inhibiting factors can be the poor scheduling habits that medical professionals fall into. More specifically, we should always be reevaluating the ways we go about organizing and managing our practice to find the optimal series of actions that keep our business running smoothly. If you find that things have become a bit cumbersome or slow around your office, consider these three tips for bettering your practice management techniques:

Most top tier EMR/EHR software systems will include an ICD-10 General Equivalency Mapping (GEM) tool to assist you and your administrative personnel with side-by-side medical coding. The software’s GEM functionality translates diagnostic and procedural codes from ICD-9 to ICD-10 and offers other critical information that connects codes in ICD-9 to codes in ICD-10, such as: