The disruptive nature of the transition to ICD-10 poses serious questions for specialty practices; and while we’ve worked to address many questions in this blog, including how ICD-10 works, key differences between it and ICD-9, steps for preparing your clinical functions and readying your overall practice, and how an EMR can minimize ICD-10 disruption, there still is one lingering question: Do we really need it?

Have you implemented certified EMR/EHR technology in your specialty practice? The 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) required reimbursement penalties for all Medicare eligible healthcare providers who do not comply with Meaningful Use.

Nextech will be hosting its first annual user conference, EDGE (Educate, Discover, Generate, Exchange), Wednesday, February 25, 2015 to Friday, February 27, 2015 at Walt Disney World’s Swan and Dolphin Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Warning: If you are looking for a boring, sleep-inducing conference, EDGE isn’t for you. If you want a dynamic, hands-on training and networking experience on the very latest in effective practice solutions, you should definitely plan to attend this conference. This will be a memorable experience with things to do for the whole family.

Most specialty practices set aside ample time for software systems training when implementing new technologies. It’s typically all-hands-on-deck for vendor training during EMR implementation, and many host topic-specific training sessions to support meeting Stage 2 requirements for practices that pursue meaningful use. In addition, most practices that bill any insurance companies are currently focused on training in preparation for the ICD-10 transition. But what about the long stretches in between milestones?

ICD stands for International Classification of Diseases. This international standard is used to document all different types of diseases and other health-related conditions in many official medical records. Most member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) started using ICD-10 (the most up-to-date version) since 1994. The United States is one of the few WHO members that still uses ICD-9 and has not yet transitioned to ICD-10.

Has a virus ever hit your computer networks or EMR software? How about a hard-drive failure, data leak, or someone with unauthorized access to your software (i.e. a hacker)? If you have experienced one or more of these IT issues, then you’re probably no stranger to the disastrous consequences it can have for your practice.

For specialty practices large and small, optimizing functionality is a common concern, especially when taking into account future changes beyond Meaningful Use, the transition to ICD-10, and other heathcare mandates.

The most recent delay in the ICD-10 transition was due, in part, to issues with vendor readiness. Another delay is extremely unlikely, yet readiness remains a potential issue with some suppliers. In fact, a recent survey from The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) revealed that only 40 percent of healthcare providers have “complete” solutions for ICD-10, an improvement of just 15 points compared to 12 months earlier, despite the extra development time. Specialty practices that rely on the remaining 60 percent of vendors whose solutions are not complete for ICD-10 should consider two key questions: How can I gauge whether my vendor will be ready in time? What represents sufficiently “complete” vendor software and services?