Questions to ask your IT team
During a November 17 virtual meeting hosted by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), co-presenter Laurine Johnson, MS, RHIA, CPC-H, director of HIM services at Ingenix, gave the following list of questions you should ask your information technology (IT) team to prepare for ICD-10 implementation:
- How does 5010 impact my ICD-10 implementation?
- Which databases contain ICD-9-CM codes?
- Which software packages include ICD-9-CM codes?
- Which interfaces include ICD-9-CM?
- What reports contain ICD-9-CM codes?
- How does ICD-10 impact my electronic health record?
- How many vendors are involved with the software, databases, connectivity, and interfaces?
- What are the vendor plans for implementing ICD-10 and how does it impact this organization?
- Should we convert data from ICD-9-CM to ICD-10? Should we convert ICD-10 data to ICD-9-CM codes?
- Does software need to be upgraded or replaced?
- What will be the capital and operating budget impact?
- What is the testing plan?
Have you already consulted with your IT team regarding ICD-10 implementation? Are there other questions you would add to this list? Were you surprised to hear any of the answers your IT team provided? Share your feedback, and post a comment!
About the Author: Doreen V. Bentley, CPC-A, is the Managing Editor of JustCoding.com, which provides coders, coding supervisors, and health information management (HIM) directors with educational resources to test their coding knowledge, employ correct coding guidelines, and stay abreast of CMS transmittals.
