With October 1, 2015, firmly set as the start date for ICD-10 in the United States, healthcare providers and vendors are pushing ahead on their readiness schedules to ensure a smooth implementation of the new coding system. It goes without saying that phasing out ICD-9 in favor of ICD-10 will not be an easy task. After all, clinics and hospitals have been using ICD-9 for over 30 years, and bucking the old system for the new means eliminating not only decades of familiarity but also having to learn tens of thousands of new codes.

Challenges like these naturally lend themselves to common myths and misconceptions, which can end up significantly hampering how effectively the healthcare industry is able to adopt ICD-10. To help cut through the confusion, here are two more of these misconceptions and what the truth behind them actually is:

• It's harder to get the right codes with ICD-10: While ICD-10 provides several times as many codes as ICD-9, the process of determining the right code to use will actually be made easier, not harder. The ICD-10 code set is more specific and comprehensive, so more precise and detailed searches will yield the most appropriate results. By contrast, ICD-9's codes are more ambiguous, lending themselves to multiple interpretations and plenty of headaches on the recordkeeper's part.
• The industry just isn't ready for ICD-10: This is one that providers and payers alike have heard plenty of times before. After all, ICD-10 has been delayed three times now, so of course the industry just isn't ready for the new codes, right? On the contrary, 40 percent of providers surveyed by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) have reported that they would be ready to begin end-to-end testing for ICD-10 compliance by the end of just this year — nine months ahead of the 2015 deadline. That number will only continue to increase as more providers ramp up their ICD-10 readiness schedules and undergo the necessary tests.

There's no doubt that implementing and adopting ICD-10 is not going to go over quickly or easily. There are a number of growing pains that medical practices and physicians will have to grapple with in order to ensure their chiropractic EHR systems are not only set-up for ICD-10 use, but can effectively use these thousands of news code to their full potential, reaping an improved recordkeeping process and more accurate patient care experiences.

It's imperative that providers invest their resources into the best chiropractic EHR software to ensure ICD-10 compliance and prevent any negative disruptions to their workflow in the process.