Nearly $3 million in grant funding will be dedicated to assist heart-related companies develop products and services, thanks to the Cleveland Clinic's Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center. A $60 million grant, awarded to the center in 2006, is already being used to help companies with heart-related projects and services.
The government's proposed three-year timeline to replace the ICD-9-CM code sets, currently used to report healthcare diagnoses and procedures, with ICD-10-CM code sets is causing a stir among some in the medical community who say the switch will cost millions in additional IT and operational expenses.
Opponents say the October 2011 deadline put forward by the Department of Health and Human Services does not allow enough time for them to adequately implement and test the new codes. "This is simply not something you can rush into. It's far too complicated a transaction with the potential for a massive disruption to the healthcare industry," says Robert Tennant, senior policy advisor at Medical Group Management Association. The MGMA opposes the timeline, but not the switch to the more modern coding system.
Tennant points out that the transition comes at a time when the president and the secretary of Health and Human services are calling on providers to make greater use of health information technology, such as e-prescribing and electronic health records.
"Practices and others are going to have to spend money on updating these billing systems, money that could have been spent on HIT. It's got to be one or the other, there is not enough money to do everything," says Tennant.
Estimates vary widely about how much providers will have to spend to become compliant with the new coding system, but the general consensus is that it won't be cheap. A survey by the MGMA Legislative and Executive Advocacy Response Network reports that 95% of respondents in medical practices would have to purchase software upgrades for their practice management systems or buy all new software, and nearly 64% would have to buy code-selection software. The HHS puts the industry-wide cost at $1.64 billion, including $356 million in training costs, lost productivity costs of $572 million, and system change costs of $713 million.
Most healthcare providers agree that ICD-9-CM, which was developed 30 years ago, is outdated because of its limited ability to accommodate new procedures and diagnoses. ICD-9-CM contains only 17,000 codes, while the ICD-10-CM code sets contain more than 155,000 codes. And, more codes will certainly help hospitals increase reimbursement by allowing them to code for more diagnoses. The problem, say the MGMA, the American Medical Association, and a number of health plans including the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, is that there is no way the industry can effectively implement the new coding system in the time given.
"All we are asking is for the government to follow the recommendations of its own advisory body [the National Committee for Vital and Health Statistics]. The NCVHS letter called for the industry to move to ICD-10-CM, but it also raised a lot of questions about what the impact would be on providers and what the timing should be," says Tennant. If the NCVHS recommendations were followed and started now, the soonest ICD-10 could be completed is late 2013.
Of course, there are proponents to rapid adoption of the coding system. The American Hospital Association and the American Health Information Management Association have both announced their support of the proposed rule, saying ICD-9-CM is outdated and obsolete. "The adoption of ICD-10 is long overdue, and the replacement to ICD-9 has been discussed over the past 10 years," said Rick Pollack, AHA's executive vice president, in a statement.
While the controversy abounds, what should you be doing to prepare your practice for the 2011 deadline? First, do not put off preparing for the transition in the hope it will be delayed, said Sheri Poe Bernard, vice president of member relations at the American Academy of Professional Coders in a presentation discussing ICD-10-CM.
"There are many actions we can take now to mitigate the far-reaching effects of migration to ICD-10-CM," Bernard says. For example, she says, doctors should be trained now and given time to practice the new documentation before ICD-10 kicks in. "All areas of your practice will be affected. Early preparation is key," she says. Part of that preparation will be to gather information to assess your risk by talking to vendors and payers before the change becomes mandatory.
The bottom line: Start figuring out what your potential costs will be right now and don't wait to set up a timeline for getting your IT department ready because no matter which side wins the fight over when to make the switch to ICD-10-CM, it is going to happen.
Kathryn Mackenzie is technology editor of HealthLeaders magazine. She can be reached at kmackenzie@healthleadersmedia.com.
Note: You can sign up to receive HealthLeaders Media IT, a free weekly e-newsletter that features news, commentary and trends about healthcare technology.
Seoul, South Korea-based Medison, a diagnostic ultrasound systems company, has released it new compact ultrasound system called SonoAce X6 model. The SonoAce X6 is built upon existing software-based technology with a variety of imaging functions such as sensitive spectral, color and power doppler facilitating hemodynamic diagnoses of vascular anatomy, and pathology, according to Medison representatives. In addition to doppler sensitivity, X6 also incorporates speckle reduction filter, full spectrum imaging, and pulse inversion harmonic imaging.
Interop's New York IT Conference is scheduled for September 17-19 in New York City. Interop promises to help attendees build a lean, agile IT organization that can respond to today's rapidly changing business environment.
The Food and Drug Administration has posted a list of drugs that are being evaluated for potential safety issues online. The agency listed 20 drugs that were found to potentially cause serious adverse reactions such as cardiac arrest, overdose due to labeling or packaging confusion, and cancer.
A new issue brief from the National Association of State Chief Information Officers is urging CIOs to get involved with the Medicaid systems upgrades happening in their states. The brief, "The MITA Touch: State CIOs and Medicaid IT Transformation," describes the Medicaid Information Technology Architecture being developed by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. MITA is not merely a technical architecture, but also entails standardizing information and streamlining business processe, according to the brief. "State CIOs must understand that this can be a daunting task and will require considerable collaboration between state agencies and vendors, and a substantial modernization of current IT systems and also business practices and processes," the brief states.
In 2001, North Dakota lawmakers passed legislation that opened the door for a "telepharmacy" project after dozens of rural pharmacies went out of business. The project began with 10 volunteer sites in 2002 and has grown to 67 locations. The idea now may be catching on in other places, as other states have changed laws to allow for remote pharmacies. Alaska, Idaho, Illinois, Montana, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Wyoming have all done so, and more are on the way.
Big technology companies are seeing their customers in the financial services sector pull back on existing and new Information Technology projects, according to recent data issued by Forrester Research. Forrester polled almost 950 high-ranking technology managers at large businesses in North America and Europe, and found that more than 40% of the companies have cut back their technology spending. More businesses in the United States have cut their spending than anywhere else, and financial services firms have been the most aggressive in trimming their technology purchases, according to the findings.
While I've been quiet lately on the subject of trade groups attempting to launch medical tourism accreditation programs, others have advanced the story.
First, Avery Comarow, of U.S. News & World Report, blogged about the Medical Tourism Association's bid to become an accrediting body.
Comarow reports that Karen Timmons, president and CEO of the Joint Commission International, resigned from the MTA's board of advisors "after the program was announced and featured on the MTA Web page." An advisory board to the trade group told the MTA's president that the association cannot accredit, according to Comarow, so the MTA swapped out "accreditation" for "certification" on its Web site.
After talking with Renee-Marie Stephano, chief operating officer of the MTA, back in July, I had anticipated that more information about the program would be on the association's Web site by now, but only promotional copy can be found at the time I'm writing this story. On the U.S. News blog, a comment attributed to Stephano states in part: "The media seeks comments from people in the 'quality' sector of healthcare to create controversy where there is none. MTA certification is not about the quality of medical services as clearly stated from the beginning."
I'm sure some might consider me biased on the subject, but I wouldn't go so far as to pin the confusion about this program—whether it's called accreditation or certification—on members of the media. As a business-to-business writer, I find that readers in the healthcare industry are much more grateful when we can provide them with useful, concise, and clear information than when we rile them. To that point, I remain interested to see the association's certification standards spelled out in a way that removes all doubt about its benefits and intent.
The International Medical Travel Association has also responded recently with written comments on the topic of international accreditation. In the IMTA's view, "it is neither sufficient nor professionally acceptable for an organization to simply declare itself a grantor of accreditation while lacking the requisite infrastructure and oversight."
The IMTA paper points out four common-sense guidelines for determining whether an organization is a legitimate accreditation agency. "We believe that with patient safety at stake, accreditation standards and processes must be vetted by internationally recognized accreditation organizations and government agencies," Steven Tucker, MD, president of the IMTA says in a prepared statement. "The emergence of trade groups and others declaring themselves as quality accreditors or certification authorities not only threatens the integrity of existing organizations, but also creates market confusion at a time when global outsourcing of medical care is a growing phenomenon."
Note: You can sign up to receive HealthLeaders Media Global, a free weekly e-newsletter that provides strategic information on the business of healthcare management from around the globe.
To better facilitate care for international patients, Bangkok Hospital Medical Centre has unveiled a new apartment complex to house medical tourists and their families. It is located inside the hospital's main building, and was constructed to cater to the needs of recovering patients and their family members.
