11/21/2013    Michael L. Brody, DPM

ICD-10, a Recipe for Disaster? (Bryan Markinson, DPM)

At this point, I believe that is important to
point out that this 'extra work' in documenting
the findings and determining the correct ICD-10
code only needs to be done when you are adding a
new ICD-10 code to a patient's problem list.

Yes, it will be very time-consuming when we first
have to convert to ICD-10 and 'update' all of our
patients' charts. But once we have documented our
findings to substantiate the correct ICD-10 code,
we do not have to repeat the process each and
every visit.

We will have to repeat the process when a patient
presents with a new diagnosis and we need to
establish the documentation to support the new
ICD-10 code. With implementation of EHR
technology, we had to expect productivity
decreases for about 6 months (on average) I
believe that there will be an initial period of
productivity decreases with the implementation of
ICD 10 but after our 'break in period' we will
become familiar with the requirements of the
coding system and will be back up to speed.

My advice is come October 1, 2014, adjust your
schedule to provide yourself with more time to
document your findings, and complete the
documentation at the time of the visit wherever
possible so that you can examine the patient and
document the additional details necessary for the
proper ICD-10 code. Once the patient has left the
office, if you do not know the answer to a detail,
you may be in for a lot of frustration.

, Commack, NY, mbrody@tldsystems.com

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