As October 1, 2013 gets closer the pressure continues to rise for clinicians, health information departments, and their counterparts in the revenue cycle department to have an understanding of ICD-10.  Of course the level of ICD-10 comprehension required for a given staff member depends on their current use of ICD-9 codes.  Clinicians, whose documentation supports medical code assignment, will require in depth training on how what they communicate in the medical records needs to be more specific to handle the needs of ICD-10.

Because there is an explosion of codes for both diagnoses and procedures, clinicians will have to be explicit in order to drill down to the code that best characterizes the encounter.  Documentation specialists will have to train clinicians on precisely how ICD-10 changes the demands of documentation.  Coders will have to have a clear understanding of the structure of ICD-10 in order to identify the correct code and also when the documentation lacks sufficient specificity.  Revenue cycle management will have to know ICD-10 in order to ensure that the provider is collecting the correct amount for a given encounter.

Codebusters has taken an innovative approach to teaching ICD-10, through its book ICD-10 Made Easy:  Emergency Room Coding.  The text contains 34 different emergency room records.  Each record contains a detailed explanation for how each code was assigned.  We describe the reason for code assignment based on the Official Coding Guidelines, and we also show the reader how to look up each code in the ICD-10 Coding Manual.  Coders and revenue cycle auditors will need to understand the logic of the ICD-10 Coding Manual in order to be proficient; thereby, ensuring full revenue capture.