ICD-10 Implementation Consulting Best Practices

ICD-10 Implementation Consulting was just starting to ramp up with hospitals who were until now struggling and distracted with electronic medical record implementation projects to achieve meaningful use of EMRs.

With the announcement from CMS creating uncertainty, ICD-10 implementation plans and ICD-10 assessment start dates have been re-assessed by many of our clients.   Now that CMS has announced a firm date of October 1, 2014, it should be clear that HIPAA covered entities should be moving ahead.

One strategy is to continue to move ahead on ICD-10 process impacts, systems planning, and overall budgets but depending on readiness, get your consulting firm to help with both the requirements documentation and strategies for clinical documentation that don’t’ exist now.   Why?  The WEDI / NCHICA timeline suggests that health care providers should have started planning for ICD-10 about 18 months before the CMS announcement of a delay.  Therefore any ICD-10 implementation consulting or ICD-10 planning that was not done should be started now, even with a delay.  It would mean (tongue in cheek) that if you are a hospital system, clinic, physician group, etc. that you could start now and only one year late or perhaps be right on time if CMS announces a two-year delay.

ICD-10 is coming.  The certain thing is that the train has left the station, and the arrival time, if delayed, still means that healthcare providers need to be planning now.

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Michael F. Arrigo

Michael is Managing Partner & CEO of No World Borders, a leading healthcare management and IT consulting firm. He serves as an expert witness in Federal and State Court and was recently ruled as an expert by a 9th Circuit Federal Judge. He serves as a patent expert witness on intellectual property disputes, both as a Technical Expert and a Damages expert. His vision for the firm is to continue acquisition of skills and technology that support the intersection of clinical data and administrative health data where the eligibility for medically necessary care is determined. He leads a team that provides litigation consulting as well as advisory regarding medical coding, medical billing, medical bill review and HIPAA Privacy and Security best practices for healthcare clients, Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Records. He advises legal teams as an expert witness in HIPAA Privacy and Security, medical coding and billing and usual and customary cost of care, the Affordable Care Act and benefits enrollment, white collar crime, False Claims Act, Anti-Kickback, Stark Law, physician compensation, Insurance bad faith, payor-provider disputes, ERISA plan-third-party administrator disputes, third-party liability, and the Medicare Secondary Payer Act (MSPA) MMSEA Section 111 reporting. He uses these skills in disputes regarding the valuation of pharmaceuticals and drug costs and in the review and audit of pain management and opioid prescribers under state Standards and the Controlled Substances Act. He consults to venture capital and private equity firms on mHealth, Cloud Computing in Healthcare, and Software as a Service. He advises ERISA self-insured employers on cost of care and regulations. Arrigo was recently retained by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) regarding a significant false claims act investigation. He has provided opinions on over $1 billion in health care claims and due diligence on over $8 billion in healthcare mergers and acquisitions. Education: UC Irvine - Economics and Computer Science, University of Southern California - Business, studies at Stanford Medical School - Biomedical Informatics, studies at Harvard Medical School - Bioethics. Trained in over 10 medical specialties in medical billing and coding. Trained by U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and PTAB Judges on patent statutes, rules and case law (as a non-attorney to better advise clients on Technical and Damages aspects of patent construction and claims). Mr. Arrigo has been interviewed quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and National Public Radio, Fortune, KNX 1070 Radio, Kaiser Health News, NBC Television News, The Capitol Forum and other media outlets. See https://www.noworldborders.com/news/ and https://www.noworldborders.com/clients/ for more about the company.