Providers are turning to third-party consulting firms to prepare for ICD-10, including help with training, roadmaps and documentation, according to KLAS.
Providers around the country are turning to third-party consulting firms to help them prepare for the transition to ICD-10, according to two new KLAS surveys released this week.
Consulting firms are helping organizations develop roadmaps, train staff and improve clinical documentation. The deadline for transitioning to ICD-10, the revision of the medical classification and coding system, is October 2014, and CMS has said providers should expect testing alone to take 19 months, KLAS notes.
“According to this guideline, providers will need to have their ICD-10 plans implemented and begin testing in just a few months,” according to one report in the series, ICD-10 Consulting: Roadmap to a Successful Transition. “Providers are feeling the pressure to put plans itno place and implemented them to ensure their compliance with ICD-10."
So they are turning to firms like The Advisory Board, Deloitte and 3M, the top ranked consulting firms among 24 mentioned by respondents. About 110 providers interviewed said they were using consultant support, in line with the 65 percent who said in 2011 that they planned to hire a firm, according to KLAS.
Types of services provided by third-party consulting firms (Chart courtesy KLAS)
• 84 percent of the consulting deals involved roadmap/gap analysis, designed to help gaugue how ICD-10 will affect an organization and what steps they need to take to prepare
• Clinical training (52 percent) and staff training (40 percent) topped the list of providers’ needs for ICD-10 readiness
• 30 percent of agreements involved clinical documentation improvement
In the second report, ICD-10 Perception 2012: Can Technology Relieve Readiness Issues?, providers noted that technology is still a major consideration in their readiness strategies, but it’s less of a concern this year (14 percent) compared with in 2011 (28 percent).
Seventy-five percent of respondents said they have purchased or planned to purchase computer-assisted coding technology, and 38 percent listed CDI technology.
Providers also cited concern about their coders’ loss of productivity, some as much as 70 percent. “This situation is driving providers to look at other ways to minimize this projected loss, including computer-assisted coding and outsourced coding services,” KLAS reported.
{C}
A Victory for Radiology: New CMS Proposal Would Provide Coverage of CT Colonography in 2025
July 12th 2024In newly issued proposals addressing changes to coverage for Medicare services in 2025, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced its intent to provide coverage of computed tomography colonography (CTC) for Medicare beneficiaries in 2025.
The Reading Room: Artificial Intelligence: What RSNA 2020 Offered, and What 2021 Could Bring
December 5th 2020Nina Kottler, M.D., chief medical officer of AI at Radiology Partners, discusses, during RSNA 2020, what new developments the annual meeting provided about these technologies, sessions to access, and what to expect in the coming year.
ACR Collaborative Model Leads to 35 Percent Improvement with Mammography Positioning Criteria
July 1st 2024Noting significant variation with facilities for achieving passing criteria for mammography positioning, researchers found that structured interventions, ranging from weekly auditing of images taken by technologists to mechanisms for feedback from radiologists to technologists, led to significant improvements in a multicenter study.
New Study Shows Non-Radiologists Interpreting 28 Percent of Imaging for Medicare Patients
June 28th 2024While radiologists interpreted approximately 99 percent of all non-cardiac CT, MRI and nuclear medicine studies in hospital and emergency department settings for Medicare beneficiaries, new research shows significantly less radiologist review of cardiac imaging and office-based imaging.