ICD-10 Tips and Tricks

Since ICD-10 went live on October 1st, 2015 here are a few things to know:

• Provider training is wonderful, however, ICD-10 is about more than knowing which specific diagnosis should be used. It is also about knowing what information is necessary to support that diagnosis. Expecting providers to remember all of the necessary documentation requirements is probably setting the bar pretty high. A better approach might be to customize noteforms (if using the V11 note), in a way that adequately supports each diagnosis without overwhelming providers with unnecessary details.

• Remember to configure the RPL dictionary so that ICD-10 codes show on order requisitions.

• Using assessment forms is a good way to save providers time and clicks. Many organizations have only planned to use the Clinical Qualifier Selection Tool to assist providers in getting to the most specific diagnosis and while this will work well for some, it may not work well for primary care providers as they often assess and treat patients for multiple diagnoses with each visit (sometimes as many as ten). For these situations, minimizing clicks is imperative and thus using an assessment noteform with the top 25 diagnoses might be an easier way to go. For specialists who assess their specialty specific diagnoses, adding in options for some of the less frequently assessed diagnoses could also be helpful.

• When searching for ICD-10 names or codes in the ACI, there is the potential that a specific diagnosis may not come up. An example of this might be that searching in a TEST environment for a specified diagnosis, might not yield the same result when searching in Production. This might be a result of a missing piece of an ATP update. Entering a ticket to AHS can get this issue resolved.