A new survey conducted by Research and Markets finds that about 71 percent of U.S. hospitals are looking to partner with an ICD-10 clinical documentation improvement (CDI) service by Q3 2015, in the hopes of ensuring proper ICD-10 implementation before the October 1 deadline.

EHR Intelligence reports that currently only 24 hospitals make use of outside CDI partners for auditing and programming responsibilities. That figure will nearly triple by this time next year, though, with about three-quarters of the 1,115 surveyed providers saying that they were planning to outsource their CDI needs before next October. Doing so allows hospitals to making the coding switch to ICD-10 while mitigating any burdens that transition may place on their typical workflow. 

Using outside CDI resources not only eases the workload for hospital staffs, but also helps generate further revenue as well. Already, 88 percent of hospitals that outsource their CDI responsibilities have acquired over $1 million in revenue, thanks to accurate reimbursement claims filed by these clinical documentation partners.

"Several of the hospitals that I work with have included clinical documentation improvement as part of their ICD-10 preparation," Cliff Bleustein, Chief Medical Officer for Dell's global healthcare consulting services, tells the source. "The hospitals have seen a 15-20 percent increase in their reimbursements. No matter how well you have planned and invested otherwise, if your physicians and clinical staff aren't prepared to provide the detailed documentation required, you aren't ready for ICD-10."

However providers choose to manage their resources to accommodate ICD-10 implementation, utilizing the most up-to-date chiropractic documentation software can ensure that coding needs are not only upgraded to ICD-10 standards, but done so without infringing on day-to-day productivity.

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The healthcare industry is moving full steam ahead on implementing ICD-10, now just a little over a year away from its October 2015 deadline. While adding the upgrade's tens of thousands of new codes to a practice's chiropractic EHR software will undoubtedly help improve patient care experiences and even reduce costs, it's not an easy undertaking by any means — which is partly why ICD-10 has been delayed so often already.

Clinics looking to successfully make the jump to ICD-10 next year without causing any serious disruptions to their workflow should consider these three suggestions from Medical Economics on how to best prepare for the new coding system:

• Address staff needs: Make sure to thoroughly train staffers on the ins and outs of the system. Submitting the wrong diagnostic codes or incorrectly filing claims forms can spell a number of logistical headaches for your practice otherwise.
• Focus on the most pertinent codes first: No one is going to master all 155,000 of ICD-10's new codes right out of the gate. Spend the bulk of your preparations on just getting down the most essential codes first, and then work out from there. 
• Start now: Since the deadline is set for October 1, it may be tempting to think that you can put off ICD-10 preparations until maybe next summer. But as Kevin de Reginer, president-elect of the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians, points out, ICD-10 is "such a radically different coding system from what ICD-9 is. There's going to be a pretty steep learning curve." The more time you give yourself and your staff to learn the ropes of ICD-10, the better equipped you'll be to integrate it into your administrative duties come next October.

The best chiropractic EHR software can help bring any practice further into the 21st century and facilitate a smooth transition to ICD-10.

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As many providers will already attest, it's plenty challenging to adopt new chiropractic EHR software to ensure compliance with federal ICD-10 regulations. After all, learning tens of thousands of new diagnostic codes is no easy feat, especially when balancing that venture with ICD-9 dual-coding and all of the responsibilities a clinic faces in its typical day-to-day workflow. But compounding the difficulty of the issue is that, outside of what the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has mandated, each state has its own set of compliance rules and schedules. Consequently, some states are further ahead — or further behind — in ICD-10 readiness than others.

"State action is necessary to address ICD-10 requirements, otherwise, hospitals and physician practices will be faced with conflicting requirements to report both ICD-9 and ICD-10 on different types of bills," writes Sherry Wilson and Tina Greene for industry news source ICD10monitor. "Payers will be forced to use one set of codes to satisfy state billing requirements and a different set of codes to meet federal CMS reporting requirements."

As the authors note, states that lag behind in ICD-10 preparations can significantly disrupt coding, billing and payment continuity for providers, creating a snowball effect of logistical and financial headaches for countless clinics and practices.

To determine whether or not your state will be up to speed and ICD-10 compliant in time for next year's October 1 deadline, Wilson and Greene suggest asking the following questions:

• Does the state have a specific cut-off date for when providers will have to suspend ICD-9 use?
• If the state does not adopt ICD-10, what contingency plan(s) will be available for stakeholders to prevent disrupted workflow?
• What contingency plan(s) will be made available for those stakeholders that do not adopt ICD-10 in time?
• Will bills submitted following the October 1, 2015, deadline still be allowed to include ICD-9 codes?
• Will ICD-9 coding during this transition period still be processed? Would this dual-coding still count as a form of compliance?
• Will there be new state rules required for ICD-10 adoption? And if so, what kind of timeline can stakeholders expect to ensure financial continuity during the transition?

Ensuring that states are all on the same page with each other and federal CMS guidelines will help prevent coding and diagnosis conflicts, remove the need for providers to work with two separate sets of codes and standardize EHR data for greater cross-platform sharing.

With the best chiropractic EHR software, physicians and their staff can better guarantee that their practice will be compliant with ICD-10's coding needs.

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One of the predominant concerns within the healthcare industry regarding ICD-10 implementation is how the new coding system may impact a clinic's productivity. Many physicians and staff members have long been worried about what overhauling their chiropractic EHR software will do to overall workflow, and whether or not investing in ICD-10 and learning its tens of thousands of new codes will just slow down, rather than improve, administrative duties.

As industry news source Government Health IT notes, while medical practices could spend less time on improving clinical documentation and more time on their patients now, this will effectively put them behind in understanding ICD-10 codes. As a result, these clinics will then have to face more medical queries, hampering productivity even further.

The best way to get out ahead of a wave of bothersome queries, the source writes, is to teach staff members the right ICD-10 terminology and diagnosis codes now. The more educated your physician's office is on how to properly input ICD-10 diagnosis codes, the more improved reimbursements will be, ensuring that providers are billed appropriately.

"In addition to using ICD-10 language now in queries, ask for details now that support ICD-10 levels of specificity," adds Carl Natale, the source's author. "[This] will train physicians to use the kind of documentation that will support ICD-10 coding."

By setting aside time now to learning the ropes on ICD-10 codes, the fewer queries you will be encumbered with come next year, allowing you extra time to spend on patient care.

With over a year to go until the ICD-10 deadline, investing in new EHR chiropractic software now can help bring a practice's coding needs up to speed.

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Earlier this spring, when Congress and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a year-long delay for ICD-10 — from October 1, 2014 to October 1, 2015 — the healthcare industry's reaction was split. Some providers hailed the move as a necessity that would offer more breathing room, while others derided it as yet another hiccup in a long-delayed process that is only undermining efforts to bring chiropractic EHR software up-to-date. But regardless of which side of the debate you fall on, the fact of the matter is, ICD-10 implementation isn't due to occur for over another year — and that can't be helped. What can be helped, though, is how your practice does or doesn't take advantage of this extra time.

According to Healthcare Informatics, here are a few areas of ICD-10 adoption that your practice should continue to work on in the year ahead:

• Dual coding: By next year, ICD-9 will finally be a thing of the past. But at the same time, you would be hard pressed to find a clinic that will be able to really hit the ground running with ICD-10's tens of thousands of new codes. Dual coding can keep your practice's recordkeeping on track while helping your staff become more comfortable with the new options provided by ICD-10.
• Protect revenue cycles and workflow: As the source notes, over 80 percent of ICD-10 participants believe that ICD-10 is going to have a detrimental impact on their practice's revenue cycle. But being proactive in mapping out workflow diagrams and investing into the proper chiropractic EHR software can help ensure a smoother transition from one coding system to the next, with minimal effect on daily workflows and, consequently, revenue.

You don't have to like the ICD-10 delay, but you can use it to your advantage in updating your clinic's chiropractic documentation software to prepare for the coding upgrade next year.

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As the healthcare industry has made no secret of this year, implementing and properly adopting new chiropractic EHR software that meets Meaningful Use and ICD-10 compliance standards is no small feat. These technical upgrades require significant time and financial investment, and if clinic and hospital staff aren't thoroughly trained on their use, then these digital records can provide more trouble than benefits. But the reason why we're looking to take on these upgrades in the first place is precisely because of those benefits — a fact that can be easily forgotten among all the anxiety-ridden deadlines and frustrating delays.

EHR Intelligence recently noted one significantly important feature that chiropractic EHR can provide a practice with: Navigating "a sea full of patient information." Over the last decade, the amount of patient data and digital records has grown by an exponential level. While this trend is better for both the practice and the patient — as EHR use can help improve overall care experiences and reduce patient costs — the road to that endgame can be easily overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information available. But one of the virtues of having a properly utilized EHR software is its ability to help make sense of this quantity of data and ultimately streamline a practice's workflow, rather than become hamstrung by information you can barely understand.

"Electronic health records (EHRs) can help hospitals keep up with data flow through a number of intuitive features, such as alerts and automated tracking tools," writes the source. "By engaging an enterprise EHR, hospitals can optimize their operations, resulting in less stress on staff and more time for patients."

Investing in the best chiropractic EHR software available can help clinics better manage their own influx of digital patient information.

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Earlier this week, it was reported that six Congressional leaders had sent a letter to the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services (CMS), asking for some clarity on issues pertaining to the ICD-10 delay. They aren't the only ones, either. Many groups within the healthcare industry — running the gamut of payers, vendors, providers and stakeholders — still have plenty of questions of their own about best implementation practices to ensure that by October 1, 2015, they will be able to adopt ICD-10 with minimal, if any, disruption to their workflow. As CMS has not been particularly forthcoming about these potential difficulties, Congress is asking the federal agency directly.

According to industry news source Government Health IT, here are the three primary questions Congress wants answered by CMS:

• What is being done to help the healthcare industry prepare for ICD-10?
• What is the current status of Medicare and Medicaid's transition to ICD-10?
• Why did CMS delay end-to-testing to next year and how does it plan to carry out this process?

The source was left to speculate as to whether or not these questions would be resolved in a single hearing or could span multiple sessions. Ideally, the sooner these questions are resolved, the better for everyone. While ICD-10 looks to help improve patient care experiences, reduce related costs and streamline recordkeeping duties, installing and learning how to use a system containing tens of thousands of new codes is no easy feat, and readiness procedures should be made available as soon as possible.

Utilizing chiropractic EHR software can help ensure that your practice will be up-to-speed when the time comes to implement ICD-10, allowing for proper adoption of the new coding system without negatively impacting workflow.

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When the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced earlier this year that the implementation deadline for ICD-10 would be delayed to October 1, 2015, many in the healthcare industry were frustrated, to say the least. Not only was this the third time that the federal agency had chosen to delay ICD-10 — whose new start date is now rubbing precariously close to the planned start date for ICD-11 — but many providers had been banking on the coding upgrade happening this year. The sudden year-long extension meant that much of the financial and time investments being made to ensure momentum was on track for this October were now made largely in vain.

But as disappointing as the delay may be for those healthcare groups, there are still plenty of ways that clinics, hospitals and other providers can keep their momentum going into next year. Here are three suggestions from family doctor Stephen Spain, as reported by industry news source Fierce Health IT:

• Don't wait to highlight important codes: ICD-10 provides tens of thousands of new codes, and waiting a year before immersing your staff in how to best use them can be a recipe for disaster. Identity the most important codes you'll be sure to reference now, so that when your new chiropractic EHR is finally implemented, you won't be playing catch-up on just how exactly to use it. To that end, Spain suggests putting together "a 'cheat sheet' of frequently used codes" in order to save yourself time and headaches later on.
• Evaluate how chiropractic EMR may affect your workflow: "To ensure a smooth transition — or at least understand provider complaints about different changes — practice managers first must understand their providers' workflow," writes Dan Bowman of Fierce Health IT. "Many electronic health record systems boast test environments, Spain says, and practice managers shouldn't be shy about using them."
• Prep your vendor: In spite of the several delays, many vendors in the industry still aren't ready for ICD-10. Take advantage of this extra time to ensure your clinic's vendor will be ready to process reimbursement claims by the time next October rolls around.

As the source notes, these are far from the only measures you should be taking to ensure ICD-10 readiness, but they are some of the most important.

Other critical preparations that should be made ahead of next year's deadline are developing and implementing a "comprehensive training strategy" for staffers on best practices for ICD-10 use, and finding payers that will perform claims testing during this interim period. Following these recommendations will allow for a more thoroughly prepared clinic when ICD-10 is finally made standard.

When gearing up for ICD-10 implementation, make sure your practice is relying on only the best chiropractic EHR software to accommodate the new system without negatively impacting workflow.

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There likely aren't too many practices who don't see any value in the adoption of chiropractic EHR. As EHR Intelligence notes, these digital recordkeeping systems provide "ubiquitous availability of patient records, convenience and timeliness of mobile access to information and streamlined communication among healthcare professionals and patients," all allowing for a smoother, more accurate and mutually beneficial patient care experience.

But often the question isn't why you should implement chiropractic EHR software, but rather how. For all the conveniences they can afford patients, they may not be particularly convenient themselves to first install. Meaningful Use guidelines have, in many cases, only complicated this situation further, adding greater stress in terms of both costs and workflow. 

To help clinics and office-based physicians better ease their way into chiropractic EMR adoption, EHR Intelligence has outlined a couple rules of thumb worth following:

• Alter your workflows accordingly: There's no getting around it — when you integrate EHR into your office, your workflow will change. This is true of any healthcare group, from small clinics to large hospitals, and can affect anything from inter-office messaging, appointment schedules, patient releases and so on. Utilizing the best chiropractic EHR software can help ensure that implementation occurs without detrimentally impacting your day-to-day workflow.
• Spend time on staff training: How successful your practice will be with implementing, let alone using on a regular basis, EHR will depend entirely on how well-trained they are for it in advance. Take the time to instruct staffers and administrators on the ins and outs of the new system. It's an investment and one that will pay off significantly with proper EHR use.

Invest your time and resources into the proper chiropractic documentation software to better facilitate thorough and as-smooth-as-possible EHR adoption.

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The last few months have been particularly active for the healthcare industry, with coding systems like ICD-10 being delayed while EHR standards such as Meaningful Use Stage 2 are continuing to ramp up. The next year will be especially hectic as clinics, hospitals and physician-based offices rush to meet deadlines and ensure that their practices are utilizing proper levels of EHR care.

But in all of the coverage surrounding these topics, two crucial and seemingly interchangeable buzzwords have been throw around often: Implementation and adoption. And while they may seem like they're referring to the same thing — the usage of chiropractic EHR software — the truth is that the two concepts are very different.

EHR Intelligence recently published a piece highlighting the viewpoints of several major industry players in a LinkedIn discussion group over the question of what (if anything) separates implementation from adoption. While the answers weren't 100 percent identical across the board, they all boiled down to the same idea: Implementation is putting chiropractic EHR into practice, whereas adoption is using it adequately and knowledgeably without negative impacts to overall workflow.

"An organization can implement an EHR system or any system for that matter, but if it is not used properly and optimally by the entire organization, then the system itself is moot," writes Eric, one of the LinkedIn group's participants. "Far too often, organizations will rush to implement a system and not spend nearly enough time as they on training the end users. This creates a huge disparity in the system's proposed benefits and the realized benefits (or lack thereof)."

To that end, it's crucial that medical practices thoroughly train their employees on the use of chiropractic documentation software, to ensure that implementation is not wasted on poor adoption. Investing into the best EHR chiropractic software can help provide ease-of-use for staffers, with minimal effects on day-to-day workflow.

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