Making Mistakes. Check Your ICD-10 Education Budget.

If you are going to make a mistake, make it in the direction of action. Clearly an adage the 2011 Congress never understood. From my experience, embracing action instead of perpetually chasing perfection makes more sense—and gets better results. Since no one in the U.S. has implemented ICD-10 coding, mistakes will happen and providers will be caught off-guard.

A recent AHIMA survey confirmed that most organizations are uncertain about ICD-10 education and training requirements. There still seems to be some confusion about how much to budget and when to start. When asked what they “expected to budget” 40 percent thought a low amount was adequate. However among those that have actually budgeted for ICD-Training, only 27 percent were low while 39 percent budgeted high amounts. It seems that those that have thought it through are finding there is more than meets the eye. The survey was done by AHIMA and is available here: HTTP://journal.ahima.org/2011/12/12/expecting-a-bargain-on-ICD-10-training/ . While they did not state the actual numbers of the high and low estimates, they did say that there was a $2000 difference per coder between high and low.

It is true that approximately 50 hours of training is required for learning the technical aspects of ICD-10. But there is a wealth of biomedical information required to understand the granularity of coding in I-10. If you are going to have a “miss”, it is likely that it will be in the area of bio-medical education, a mistake that will most certainly cost organization in both time and money..

All of the international experience with ICD-10 shows that countries wish they had started earlier and budgeted more. But those countries do not use I-10 for reimbursement. The U.S. revenue model is going to complicate implementation further. So on top of all else, your revenue stream is at risk.

Make the investment of time and money to educate and train-and make it now. In 2012, training should be condensed and budgets formulated for a shorter period. Assess the base knowledge levels of your coders now (AHIMA has the tools). Then spend 2012 laying the educational foundation for success. In 2013, conduct technical ICD-10 training.

It is always best practice to do something. Even, if it is a mistake-make it in the direction of action. I think you will find, in this case, that it is not a mistake!