All you should know about ICD-10 Delays
You do not really have to be a part of the healthcare industry to be aware of the matter of ICD-10 delays. This has been popular news that has been making rounds all over the world. It does potentially affect the healthcare industry and if you are a part of that industry, then it is important you knew more about it. ICD-10 is the new coding system which was proposed to replace the present system, which is ICD-9. The decision made was that every ICD-9 system will have to be replaced by ICD-10 system. In other words, the ICD-10 system would become the universal one. This system is believed to be a much better version of the previous one that will help the healthcare system to attain much more efficiency.
What are the ICD-10 delays?
Previously the implementation of the ICD-10 was delayed till the year 2014. Accordingly, the healthcare facilities were taking up measures to prepare themselves. The date of 2014 was apparently unmovable. But, recent news has confirmed that the delay has been extended till October 1, 2015. This sudden one year additional delay has created quite a furor in the healthcare industry. Different people are coming up with different theories of how this will affects different parts of the healthcare community - right from the doctors to the project managers in the industry. The results have been pretty diverse.
The reactions to ICD-10 delays
This delay has received mixed reactions from the entire healthcare industry. Some doctors are no doubt relieved - as the delay means they can smoothly carry on operations in the erstwhile way, which has been working quite fine till now. So, the medical practice will not feel the hit owing to change of systems. But, the ones truly grumbling are the project managers who have been preparing for this update for the past numerous months. Moving on from ICD-9 to ICD-10 cannot be done without proper training. All this while, the entire healthcare fraternity has been used to ICD-9. So, the managers had to spend money on setting up ICD-10 systems so that they can train every worker in the healthcare system. Hence, by the time the update was officially implemented, everyone would know how to work with it. This will help to save on unnecessary wastage of time in making the transition.
But the ICD-10 delays have completely spoilt these efforts. Since they have to wait another year to get the official update, they still have to keep following the ICD-9 system. This means, the pressure has doubled, because both the systems will have to be maintained. Also, the training programs going on for ICD-10 will have to be put on a hold, because there is no point in going through a training program that cannot be implemented anytime soon. This means all those months spent in training before were waste too. Owing to all these reasons, the delay has met with much criticism from the entire healthcare fraternity in the United States.