Haven’t started planning for ICD-10 implementation yet? Think that you have a lot of time before the implementation compliance date of October 2013? Feeling that you don’t have the budget now but may have it in 2012 and 2013 and can start your planning then?
These are some common sentiments of practically everyone in the healthcare industry who is affected by the ICD-10 mandate. More and more questions are starting to arise about the process that requires solid answers. Organizations must determine how long they can wait before starting the implementation process and must assess how the mandate will impact them. Some organizations are also assuming that they are going to get a reprieve and that there will be an extension to the implementation deadline. However, the probability of this happening is very low, so it’s advisable not to factor it into your thinking and planning.
Following are 10 key considerations to think about if you have not begun your ICD-10 planning :
1. Determine your strategy and plan for your organization. Having a strategy is key to determining how to plan for the migration, understand how large the plan needs to be and decide what resources need to be included, etc.
2. Develop an internal/external communication strategy. Knowing how you will communicate your strategy and plan to all internal and external stakeholders is an important second step.
3. Educate all stakeholders and areas on the potential impacts and opportunities. It is critical that everyone understands the magnitude of the impacts caused by the migration process. Furthermore, it’s equally important that stakeholders are aware of the ability to take advantage of business transformation opportunities, which will be discussed later.
4. Recruit an Executive Sponsor/Champion. It is extremely important that you get executive sponsorship and support. The reason this is critical is that when you are seeking support for budget, resources, prioritization and other senior leadership intervention that you have already secured your internal Champion.
5. Identify/determine the team that will be assigned to the project. Assign a person as the Project Manager. This person will play a key role in helping you develop your overall plan.
6. Set reasonable goals. Set attainable goals with senior management, the project team and all internal and external stakeholders. These goals then get tracked as part of the overall project planning activities to assure that they are met and that any remedial actions are triggered to make the appropriate adjustments.
7. Determine your financial exposure. It is critical to understand the potential financial impact the migration process will have on your organization. This information can help you gain executive support and assist you with your internal messaging as you develop the teams to drive the strategic, assessment and tactical planning.
8. Assess the impact. The first phase is to perform an assessment of all potentially impacted systems and business processes – especially taking into consideration impact at the organizational level. This assessment needs to review the organization holistically in order to gain a detailed-view of all potentially-impacted areas. Remember that migration from ICD-9 to ICD-10 is approximately 70% business impact and 30% system impact. Therefore, the business process flows need to be thoroughly assessed to determine if remediation efforts need to be considered. It is also important to determine whether or not you have the resources within your organization to manage a project of this scope. If not, it’s important to remember that you also have the option of seeking professional consulting services or a hybrid approach of the two to minimize your costs.
9. Take advantage of business transformation opportunities. The best kept secret from this conversion is the ability to take advantage of the business transformation opportunities created by this migration. Some of the benefit areas can include better medical management analytics as a result of more accurate outcomes for reporting medical management process changes and disease management. Additionally improvements in customer and member service due to increase in diagnostic specific dates. Organizations that start the assessment as early as possible will be able to take advantage of these opportunities — which have significant ROI and will assist in offsetting remediation costs.
10. Test, test, test. Allow ample time to test the migration process internally and with all of your stakeholders. This will ensure that there will be no issues with accepting ICD-10 transactions. It is also important that you test your new business processes and make adjustments as needed. Too many organizations “shortcut” the testing phase and based on personal experience, I can tell you that this is a critical phase to achieving success.
When integrated into your overall plan, these 10 steps will help ensure your migration plan is a success and will help you take the leadership role that is needed within your organization. Additionally, there are some great resources available on the web, which can be accessed, including experiences that other organizations have had and lessons they have learned. ICD-10 has been implemented in Europe, South Africa and other nations for several years so there are some great “lessons learned” available. I encourage you to be the catalyst and “change agent” in your organization and help move this very important process forward.
[...] Article Virtusa Blog, 21 June 2011 [...]