Tom Sullivan

Plenty of folks said this would be coming and now it has begun - computer-assisted coding tools started rolling toward ICD-10 in the form of one acquisition, a trio of partnerships, and a new tool. Hardly the first such CAC wares to support ICD-10 but, taken together, they represent a collective wave of what's to come.

The AAPC (American Academy of Professional Coders) kicked off its “ICD-10 Will Change Everything” campaign in late summer, replete with tools, training, and a virtual floor plan displaying how every corner of a physicians practice will feel the impact.

The ICD-9-CM Coordination and Maintenance Committee has confirmed that ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes will be frozen - but there's both good and bad news about that for provider and payers.

When selecting and planning implementation of an electronic health records (EHR) system, healthcare organizations of all sizes have much to consider - just don't overlook HIPAA 5010 or ICD-10 from the onset.

ICD-10 looks a bit beleaguered this week. That's after state insurance commissioners issued a proposal under which health insurers would not be permitted to consider ICD-10 within their medical-loss ratio (MLR) – and physician and hospital organizations backed the idea.

Y2K threatened power outages, food and water shortages, bank failures - all of which would render folks around the globe cold, hungry, thirsty, and without any way to get money to quell those. That catastrophe never happened, but ICD-10 has since been compared to Y2K, warranted or not.

Here's a prophecy guaranteed to make healthcare CIOs and their staffs wake up in a midsummer night's cold-sweat: a triptych of regulations, when taken together, will require payers to transform almost all IT systems and architecture.

ICD-10 is a multi-headed beast. As such, there are many faces to the new code sets; some are well known while others, often just as important, are not so understood.

Perhaps it's waiting on the back burner but ICD-10 did not make the cut of health IT's most important projects for 2010 and 2011, at least not among healthcare executives.

To many healthcare IT professionals the phrase ICD-10 is downright frightening. Mammoth in expanse and expense, the conversion, along with the requisite HIPAA 5010, is the stuff of Jungian nightmares, early retirement, or profound career changes.