Push Back on ICD-10
Over the last couple of years, every billing conference that I have been to and most medical billers I know have been looking to gear up for the change from ICD-9 codes to ICD-10 codes to get ready for the 2013 deadline. The reason that most people have been looking to prepare for ICD-10 is that ICD-10 has 3 to 5 times the number of codes that ICD-9 has. The Wall Street Journal also looked into the new code change that can be found here.
The amount of complexity to ICD-10 moves from basic to procedures to a better understanding of anatomy and how a patient’s anatomy relates to certain procedures. The increased level of specificity can cost a small physician office of just three doctors over $83,000. This is where the push back has come into play.
The American Medical Association (AMA) has voted to “vigorously … stop implementation of ICD-10″. The argument that the AMA has is that with the requirement to move to EHRs and by 2015 and the extra cost, their is no medical value for the physician’s patients. The lobbying effort involved to stop CMS from enforcing the ICD-10 deadline is in full force. But will CMS back down to the AMA and if not, then what?
This is where a medical billers come into play. Your services to complete the physician’s medical billing is invaluable when an office is faced with a huge cost for training and other support. By easing the process and consulting with the doctor, not only can you make money for your services, you can possibly add more clients who need your services. Here are a couple of ways that you can market yourself in this tumultuous climate:
- Talk to doctors about outsourcing their billing service to you to avoid all of the ICD-10 change over issues
- Develop specialty specific fee sheets that include the additional ICD-10 codes
- Offer training services to the doctor’s staff through a series of brown bag lunches
Although there is a lot of push back from many industry groups like the AMA, you can still market your services and do well in the new medical billing landscape.
