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.
“No organization will be able to avoid using CAC software as the ROI is compelling for automated processes,” explains Susan Eustis, president of WinterGreen Research. “As medical coders become dependent on CAC software they realize the value. As the industry moves to ICD-10 the software increases in value, and the value is recognized because the process is too complex to manage without automation.”
Indeed, some healthcare organizations are already reaping productivity gains from CAC software with ICD-9 and expect to earn even more come ICD-10. Baptist Health System, for instance, has been using Precyse Solutions' Automated Coding Platform for the past two year for ICD-9 coding.
Computer-assisted coding has enabled Baptist Health “to not only automate the coding workflow process but to also manage our coding team from a distance, send our coders home, recruit and retain key personnel and increase our staff engagement from 80 percent to 99 percent,” explained Chloe Phillips, corporate director of HIM and clinical revenue at Baptist.
[Related: Readers' top 5 ICD-10 cost concerns. See also: The AAPC's 16 steps that ease ICD-10.]
As the ICD-10 compliance deadline draws closer – it's October 1, 2013 – more CAC toolboxes will add ICD-10 options. The latest such happenings: Ingenix scoped up A-Life Medical, Amerinet said that it will start offering 3M's computer-assisted coding tools, Precyse Solutions teamed with M-Modal, the RBMA (Radiology Business Management Association) joined forces with Coding Strategies, and AMI (Artificial Medical Intelligence) injected its CAC software with ICD-10 support – and all that was just last week.
The highest profile of those, perhaps, is UnitedHealthcare-owned Ingenix's purchase of A-Life Medical, a CAC company. Ingenix vice president Bill Miller explained in a Healthcare IT News story about the deal that the combined operation will “create advanced coding solutions to help clients manage challenges,” among those being ICD-10, of course.
Healthcare group purchasing organization Amerinet expanded an existing agreement with 3M Health Information Systems such that it will now make the 3M Codefinder Computer-assisted Edition available to its 42,000 members, Amerinet says, to help members “expedite coding, promote data quality, and reduce costs and improve outcomes.”
Precyse Solutions and M-Modal, meanwhile, aligned on PrecyseCode, a CAC engine that the companies claim improves coding productivity and accuracy, results in fewer denied claims or discrepancies, and generally enables an easier transition to ICD-10. With an eye on its radiologist-specific audience, the RBMA and Coding Strategies (CSI) inked a pact to create the ICD-10-CM toolkit, a customizable implementation plan and timeline to help radiology administrators with ICD-10 coding.
AMI, for its part, bolted ICD-10 support onto the latest iteration of its EMscribe CAC software. Emscribe 10 also harvests AMI's Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology to read patient records for CPT, diagnostic, and procedure codes, the company said.
Baptist Health's Phillips says that NLP will play a key role with ICD-10, at least in her organization.
[Related: A little-known potentially large ICD-10 loophole. See also: Top 3 understated aspects of ICD-10 for coders.]
“With the NLP, our team will be able to perform concurrent reviews of documentation. With the new automated online physician query feature, our physicians will be able to respond more timely and become more educated on the documentation needed,” she explains. “We have already gained 10-20 percent increase in coder productivity and we expect to continue to see this increase as we incorporate [new features] by another 10-20 percent.”
Phillips' experience may bring a modicum of hope amid widespread speculation that ICD-10 will create a drop in coder productivity, at least in the short term.
Computer-assisted coding tools promise to help keep that productivity loss at bay and, in turn, stand to ride the ICD-10 tide toward more ubiquitous use among providers.
“I have to believe that the CAC side would certainly get a market boost, but also suspect that the practice management vendors will either partner or embed such into their solutions as well,” says Janice Young, program director at IDC's Health Insights unit. “So I'd look to both independent and partner solutions.”
Tom Sullivan blogs regularly at ICD10Watch.com.
