Coming soon — ICD-10 … “Help!”
Gallagher Healthcare :: Industry Insights
By Robert C. Hall | 11/24/2014As of today, assuming that the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) doesn’t kick the implementation date down the road again, effective as of October 15, 2015, “The transition to ICD-10 is required for everyone covered by HIPAA or the Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act.” ICD stands for International Classification of Diseases and concerns the medical diagnoses and inpatient procedures that are coded for all hospital procedures. In raw terms, the health-care coding system is transitioning from roughly 15,000 codes to 68,000 codes. And you thought an RAC audit was scary before? If you want to read the details on the government website, we have provided the link below:
https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/ICD10/index
But why should I care?
If you work in the health-care professional liability insurance community, your client can expect an increased practice expense. A study conducted by Nachimson Associates and published by the AMA estimated that the practice cost will range from $56,639 to $226,105. As AMA President-elect Steven J. Slack notes, “While the AMA appreciates that physicians have additional time to comply with ICD-10, we continue to have fundamental concerns about ICD-10 to be a massive unfunded mandate that comes at a time when physicians are trying to meet several other federal technology requirements and risk penalties if they fail to do so.”
Learn more about the ICD-10 transition
At the A. J. Gallagher & Company – Healthcare Practice, we are quite aware of the ICD-10 issue, and the constantly evolving nature of modern day healthcare. We add value to each client by focusing on a complete risk management needs assessment that provides informed counsel about insurance cost structures relative to coverage options. And our team approach acts as a conduit for resources to keep the hospital and practice “ahead of the legal and regulatory curve.” At the very least, we ask the simple question, “How can we help?” We then carefully listen, and then we get to work.
We welcome you to contact us: “How can we help?”
About the Author:
Robert C. Hall, Area Vice President – Healthcare Practice at Arthur J. Gallagher & Company, has over twenty years of experience in the healthcare liability, risk management and complex facility negotiation, placement and management. He has an extensive knowledge of medical underwriting and claim analysis. He has worked on behalf a large insurance carrier and was the former CEO & President for a national brokerage focused exclusively on the healthcare niche.