ICD-10 & Coding

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.

An information technology overhaul planned for the University of Michigan Health System will affect care providers and administrators in every U-M hospital, clinic and office, according to officials.

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.

Healthcare reform might seem tough, but it is necessary to repair a misaligned healthcare system, former president Bill Clinton told the nation's health insurance industry leaders Thursday. Other speakers also took up that refrain and noted that the use of information technology is part of reform.

Health plans and insurers, who have endured the brunt of criticism for soaring healthcare costs, are bracing for change as the nation moves toward reform.

Healthcare providers struggling to shift from ICD-9 to ICD-10 code sets by the government’s Oct. 1, 2013 deadline could find the path to conversion a little easier, according to executives at Ingenix and Health Language, Inc.