Worried about ICD-10? Relax, ICD-11 is on its way!

Picture courtesy of http://icanhascheezburger.com

Yes, just when you thought your life couldn’t get any more complicated and governmentally annoying, someone just had to say it… ICD-11.  Yes, after a 23 year process to integrate ICD-10 codes, from their inception, into our United States vernacular, there are already newer codes looming on the horizon.  Perhaps if we hadn’t waited so long to move into ICD-10, this wouldn’t be like dripping ice water down your sun-warmed backs. 

Dr. Arkfeld's Live WritePad Training #3

Be up and running with WritePad now!

Please Mark Your Calendar for November 10th and Register now.

Our September classes WritePad classes filled up so fast that Dr. Arkfeld is offering an additional training date on Nov 10, to accommodate additional Write Pad Users.  It is still free for those that have purchased his training and who are just starting or have not yet completed their WritePad training.  For anyone who would like to attend, but had not previously purchased Dr. Arkfeld's training, you may also attend for the modest training price of $399 per person.

Stimulus Payments and Meaningful Use, Preparing for 2012

Guess what?
If you haven’t already registered and if you are not meaningfully using your EHR 2011 is no longer an option for you.  You needed to report for 90 days this year and you would have to have registered and been using by the beginning of October to qualify for the 2011 payouts.

Is it worth it?  Really? 
We can’t speak for each of you, but I can direct you to this nifty article “CMS pays out nearly $90M in MU incentives in September” at HealtcareITNews.

Have you added the eRX programs to your WritePad?

The last 90-day Meaningful Use reporting period for 2011 begins October 3rd.

As mentioned in the WritePad training earlier this month with Dr. Arkfeld, if you want to earn the Medicare Stimulus money for 2010, you must begin at the beginning of October to complete the 90-day window. You also must have the WritePad eRx (e-Prescribing) add-on to be able to fulfill all of the Meaningful Use portions to receive the money.

We just got word from WritePad today that you MUST purchase/have the eRx or eRx Check add-on by no later than this coming Monday, September 26, 2011 or you cannot start your reporting period. Per WritePad, it can take as long as a week to complete the registration process and you must have the service installed and functioning by October 3rd in order to be able to complete your reporting and be eligible for this year’s funds.

Call the WritePad client relations manager at 800-496-2001 extension 2 for installation information.

Special Webinar- Registering for the MR Incentive Program

eTHOMAS/Writepad Roundtable Discussion Series- Registering for the Medicare Incentive Program

So, you've purchased & begun using a Certified EHR, now what?

Join us for a Roundtable Webinar with Dr. Ted Arkfeld to make sure you know exactly what you need to do, to get the Incentive money you deserve. Get information from the expert, and have a chance to ask questions. Dr. Arkfeld will take you step-by-step through the registration process for the government's ARRA "Meaningful Use" Incentive Program for healthcare providers.

Don't be stressed out, we've got your back. 

Mark your calendars for Tuesday, September 27th, from 12:30-1:00pm EST. Don't miss out!

Register for this Special webinar here.

ICD-10: Gone are the Days

ICD-10—Potpourri:
General State of Readiness- How you can & should be Preparing for the Inevitable, Part 4 of 4

ICD-10 Heralds the Death of the Superbill 

 
This article goes into a bit more detail, but I think you can gather from the above discussions that a superbill just isn’t going to be super enough to cut it for ICD-10.  Gayl Kirkpatrick, from 3M HIS Consulting Services, gave an example from a hospital her team consulted with. "We took a two-page superbill in ICD-9 and translated that into ICD-10," Kirkpatrick said. "It became a 48-page superbill." (1)

ICD-10: Concerns & Preparations

ICD-10—Potpourri:
General State of Readiness- How you can & should be Preparing for the Inevitable, Part 3 of 4

“When healthcare transitioned to ICD-9 on Oct. 1, 1984, there was still great confusion 18 months later on how to submit the codes. There was great deal of frustration both on the provider side as well as the health plan side. There was also a huge lack of training to prepare the doctors for the transition to ICD-9. As a result, for almost a year, there were large drops in revenue.

I am seeing things now, for ICD-10, that I witnessed back then for ICD-9. A great deal of people have not even started their processes.” Ben Michelson, of Hayes Management Consulting ...(1.)

Why ICD-10?

ICD-10—Potpourri:
General State of Readiness- How you can & should be Preparing for the Inevitable, Part 2 of 4

This article “ICD-10 Implementation: Top concerns for healthcare providers” quotes Jim Jacobs, senior vice president and product management and health information management for QuadraMed. "If you want to understand outcomes and understand the protocols that are working, the protocols that have measured benefits, then you need quite a bit of specificity."

What is ICD-10?

ICD-10—Potpourri:
General State of Readiness- How you can & should be Preparing for the Inevitable, Part 1 of 4

The message is, as always, begin to prepare now and begin making the changes to how you document now, so that you are better prepared as a provider for ICD-10 and so your coders and billers will have the information they need to take care of you and the patients properly.

The International Classification of Diseases system will be updated from the ICD-9 to the ICD-10 standard on October 1, 2013.  These are the codes that are used in healthcare as a common language to describe the diagnosis, condition, or other reasons for a patient visit to the doctor or healthcare facility.  Now around the world ICD-10 has been used for years, the United States is one of the last places to implement this coding.

Live WritePad Training With Dr. Arkfeld Review & Added Date: Sept 29

We had a WritePad training with Dr. Ted Arkfeld, DC, MS, CPC. Thursday, Sept 8th.  It went very well with great tips, good comments, and a general sense of "yes, I can do this".  Being the lucky duck who gets to sit in on the classes I also live tweeted throughout the day.  I have collected those tweets for you here.  For some they might be reminders they forgot to note, for others I'm hoping you'll see a couple of things that might help your office or inspire you to learn more. (Penny)

Here are the notes:

Dr. Arkfeld’s WritePad Training Seminar #2

Be up and running now - Again!

Please Mark Your Calendar for September 29th and Register now.

Our Sept 8th WritePad class filled up so fast that Dr. Arkfeld is offering an additional date on Sept 29, to accommodate any additional Write Pad Users.  It is still free for those that have purchased his training and who are just starting or have not yet completed their WritePad training.  For anyone who would like to attend, but had not previously purchased Dr. Arkfeld's training, you may also attend for the modest training price of $399 per person.

BCBS MI Disaffiliation Solution!

ATTENTION GENIUS SOLUTIONS CLIENTS

Over the past three weeks Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has been sending disaffiliation letters to doctors of chiropractic throughout the state. 

Thanks to Dr. Arkfeld’s efforts on your behalf, we are pleased to announce that those doctors who have become compliance clients and purchased eTHOMAS-WritePad have been given a six-month extension on their disaffiliation.  This will allow our WritePad users who are compliance clients to make and show the necessary changes in their profile in a clearly documented and evidenced way. 

If you have received a disaffiliation letter from Blue Cross Blue Shield, or any letter regarding your profile, please call Dr. Ted A. Arkfeld of Advanced Compliance Technologies immediately at 989-448-8065 or visit http://www.arkfeldcompliance.com.  Even if you are not currently a compliance client of Dr. Arkfeld’s, or do not currently have or use WritePad and have received a disaffiliation letter not all is lost, please call Dr. Arkfeld today.