OT - your doctor may go crazy soon

[Up2Early]

If you're aware of diagnosis codes and acronyms like ICD mean something to you, you probably know about this, but for the others...

http://www.stlmag.com/health/the-new-icd-10-diagnosis-codes-watch-healthcare-go-crazy/

The number of possible codes right now is 13,000. On October 1, there will be 70,000 possible codes. Don't blame your doc if he goes hunting for a month!

Implementation has already been postponed twice to give offices time to get ready. It looks likely to stick this time around.

[blgros1]

Postponed to give offices time to get ready, yeah that's what they want you to believe. It's because Medicaid doesn't have their shot together and they could not hit the targeted date originally scheduled as the go live date. I deal with these codes weekly for all my client billing, the crossover is really not that hard on our part, especially if your billing software company is on the ball. The biggest problem I foresee is again Medicaid not having it together and even when we do all the necessary steps correctly, we are still going to get denial codes because of internal glitches. For the offices that could not see the writing on the wall and can not float payroll for a few months until all is straightened out, those are the folks that need to start worring, or hope they have a line of credit already in place with the bank. You should see some of the new codes, there is a code that states something to the effect of "Impalement from flying waterfowl". Look it up

[teul2]

[rjohnson]

[Rowdy53103]

I had to google it.

It must have happened before if they needed to included it. Y'all be careful out there and and don't miss...it sounds like the ducks are fighting back.

W61.6 Contact with duck
W61.61 Bitten by duck
W61.61XA is a specific ICD-10-CM diagnosis code W61.61XA …… initial encounter
W61.61XD is a specific ICD-10-CM diagnosis code W61.61XD …… subsequent encounter
W61.61XS is a specific ICD-10-CM diagnosis code W61.61XS …… sequela
W61.62 Struck by duck
W61.62XA is a specific ICD-10-CM diagnosis code W61.62XA …… initial encounter
W61.62XD is a specific ICD-10-CM diagnosis code W61.62XD …… subsequent encounter
W61.62XS is a specific ICD-10-CM diagnosis code W61.62XS …… sequela

[mfalkner]

man our world is soooooo messed up.....

[teul2]

Yea, those duck bites are dangerous.

[Deltaquack]

[blgros1]

[bulldog ducker]

I was hoping they would postpone it again. We started sending test claims last month and so far so good on our end, it's up to them now. We put money back last year when it was supposed to be implemented and still have it sitting there. I hope the doomsday story's you hear in the rags are wrong and I don't have to have it but we are prepared to not get payed in a timely manner.

[camlock]

ICD 10 is gonna be tough...I suspect your medical coders will use small % of the new codes and settle in...

it's not the doctors to be concerned with, it's the coders and therefore the CBO getting paid. Insurance doesn't pay until coding is in and done correctly...

[lilwhitelie]

Will this affect most primary care doctors??? To some degree it will especially on reimbursement. The government is making it harder and harder to collect but they can refuse some insurance companies or the government assistance etc to up their odds of collection. The kicker will be the doctors employed by large hospitals etc. they will be under the gun for every patient not coded correctly and pressure will be on them big time since the doctors get salary vs hospital losing or making money. This could lead to a huge headache in the for profit world and an emergency room setting. Wait times, treatment, etc could be delayed due to their hands being tied doing computer work vs patient care.

[Deltaquack]

[IttaBenaKilla]

My wife told me about this awhile back, I guess she was right about the duck codes (she is an OT). I was skeptical to say the least haha.

[blgros1]