Medical Survey Results: Doctors Discuss the Benefits of ICD-10
June 7th, 2016 - Practice SuiteIn order to standardize how medical procedures and diseases are described the World health Organization relies on the International Classification of Diseases, or ICD, which is continuously being updated and revised.
In the spring of 2014, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that it would be updating to the latest version of ICD, ICD-10, starting Oct. 1, 2015. Healthcare providers who'd been using ICD-9 for more than 35 years had to learn thousands of new codes in order to prepare for the transition. Ahead of the implementation date, there were concerns that there would be widespread coding errors and payment delays because many assumed medical staffs weren't prepared for ICD-10.
With more eight months under ICD-10 under their belts, the dust from transition has settled for most practices. Luckily, the general consensus seems to be that implementation has gone better than expected.
But has the addition of tens of thousands of new medical codes been helpful for the patients? We recently asked several doctors from across the country their thoughts on whether ICD-10 has been a worthwhile. Reactions were mixed. Here's what they had to say:
Does ICD-10 ultimately benefit the patient? In the end, do you think ICD-10 will be an improvement for your practice?
"ICD-10 will benefit patients if it allows better data sourcing for disease research. As a practice, we're neutral on the subject of whether ICD-10 was helpful or not."
- Dr. Ari Geselowitz is a State College, Penn.-based radiologist who's been in practice for three decades since graduating from Penn State University College of Medicine.
"I don't see ICD-10 as beneficial to patients. It just increases overhead, which already eats up way too much of the healthcare budget. It won't make any change in radiology. We just code the information sent by the referring provider."
- Jay Sokolow MD FACR, is a Connecticut-based radiologist who received his medical degree from University of Vermont College of Medicine and has been in practice for more than three decades.
"From our research perspective we think this will be very important for patient care, mostly in getting the right medication into a specific disease type. I think it is moving in the right direction. As strong proponents and deliverers of precision-based medicine, we feel this upgrade will help to more accurately tie in diagnosis, treatment and predictive risks."
- Dr. Joel C. Robertson is the founder and CEO of Robertson Health, a multi-faceted organization dedicated to making a lasting impact on healthcare around the world through a network of for-profit and non-profit organizations.
"Yes, it does benefit patients. Better histories mean better readings. We do not engage in research, but I suspect the ability to mine data will also provide long-term benefits. It is an improvement for our practice as well. Again, the main reason is better patient information that will help us in reading the studies, recommending follow up and more accurate billing and coding will hopefully shorten the revenue cycle. That last point may be wishful thinking."
- Robert L. Falk, MD, is a staff radiologist with Radiology Specialists of Louisville in Louisville, Ky.
"I do think it benefits the patient, as there is value in greater specificity of diagnoses. This will aid patient care as a patient moves between providers, carrying these more specific diagnostic codes with them. And I think it benefits the practice, particularly when it comes to HCC coding/higher reimbursement rates from Medicare. If we do the work to maximize our coding specificity, we will reap the financial benefits, and patient care will improve as well."
- Joshua Davidson, MD, MPH is a Lead Clinician and Allergy/Immunology Specialist with HealthCare Partners Medical Group in Redondo Beach, Calif.
The CMS gave physicians a one-year grace period to adjust to ICD-10, after which they could face penalties for errors, mistakes and malfunctions - so providers might not want to sigh in relief just yet. Not to mention, the 11th revision of ICD is scheduled to be finalized in 2018 - so we'll probably have to check back in in a couple short years.
This physician survey was conducted by PracticeSuite, helping over 25,000 medical professionals worldwide.
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