ICD-10 Delay

As the delay allows the additional time for preparation, it poses an important resource and financial impact on inventing entities in transition, according to the APMA.

ICD-10 Delay

Officially it has been declared that usage of ICD-10 code has been delayed till 2015. President Barack Obama has signed the patch legislation of Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate which means that physicians would be able to receive payments according to the old formula of Medicare patients, also includes the delay of ICD-10 implementation till October 1^st, 2015. But definitely; the delay would affect the industry generally.

Most of the health care industry has spent a lot to meet with the deadline of October 1, 2014. The current act which is now spreading, will prohibit the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to carry out the switch from ICD-09 to ICD-10 before October 1, 2015. This system is already used by most of the countries all over the world and also the one which makes improvement in diagnosis, specificity and care quality.

As the delay is official, it is said by the CMS that the delay will cost between $1.1 billion to $1.6 billion which provided the estimates in 2012 when the switch of ICD-10 delayed till the year of 2014. Organizations are expecting that the delay causes an additional spend of about 10% to 30%. Also the delay in ICD-10 provides an additional time for preparation.

Options to Delay

Direct Methods

·        Incentives

·        Providing infrastructure

·        Direct funding

Indirect Methods

Implementation schedule

The accurate and detailed reporting that reflects the difficult population CHCs serve will be allowed by the ICD-10. Both the Physician Quality Reporting System and Pay for Performance use diagnosis data for the measurement of incentive payments plus the advantage plans of Medicare.

Modification

The main concern is the increasing number of codes that are available in the new system. Coders and physicians will not only require to learn the new format of ICD-10 but also learn to rearrange the code book and spending most of the time in researching options. Surely, that is an issue and productivity is to be examined to avoid coding delays.

Cost

Cost estimates depend on the IT system requirements, whether the EHR implemented or not. Although, the total cost will not be known till the procedure is completed, it surely will be a burden on the physicians.

CIOs at insurance companies, hospitals, healthcare companies and the vendors of health IT are not completely prepare to lose their built momentum to meet with the fall deadline, but also they are searching for more clarity before they start.

EHR System is More Secure than a Paper Based Record System

The switch to the electronic health record software is a complete change for most of the medical organizations; it is more secure than the records on paper.

EHR System is More Secure than a Paper Based Record System

If the medical organization is being the barrier about the switch from paper based records to electronic health records, you might think that the paper based records suggest you better security for your patients. However, usage of EHR system allows you better control of the security of medical information. There are some reasons that why electronic health records software is much more secure than the paper based records software.

Access Grant to the Authorized Users

When the physician uses a paper based record system for the medical records of the patients, it is possible for an unauthorized person to access this medical information without knowledge of anyone. Anyone can misuse of these medical information easily.

With an EHR system, it is easy to secure the information of patients easily. As it is digital, it would not be easy for anyone or unauthorized person to use the information without permission of the physician.

Encryption, the way to Secure Information

A paper based record system is easy to access, anyone can see it, record of details, copy, scan or even fax the information to a third party. The Electronic health record system can be secured with the encryption methods to keep the patient information safe to get interfere with anyone.

Your organization must have to do anything which is possible to meet the term with privacy regulations like HIPAA, and electronic health records software makes it easier to keep the privacy over paper records.

Paper Based Records System Subject to Interfering

Paper records can be changed in a manner that can be difficult to notice. Anyone can remove papers from a report. As far as EHR is concerned, Electronic health records are safe with encryption plus the strong login and password systems which make it more difficult for anyone to make unauthorized alterations to the patient chart and information.

Trials of Audit

Electronic health record software provides improved security to the medical organizations because they allow you to do audit trails. Generally, there is no guaranteed procedure for doing the trials for audits of paper based records.

With the help of an EHR system, you can determine quickly which people have accessed a record of the patient, and whether the access is authorized. The event that somebody accesses the information which they should not be seen, an audit will shine light on the situation, dissimilar to the paper records, which can be too problematic to control.

What Disasters Leave for Data Backup

Keeping the record of your patient secure is more than controlling the access to the confidential information. You need to make sure that the data will be available under the scenarios of a worst case.

As you can see that the switching over to electronic health records system will provide more security and safety for your organization for the confidential data of your patient. EHR software also offers you a number of other benefits, plus the efficiency of increased staff and decreased errors while helping you become more profitable.

Key Points:

·        Electronic health records make you enable to provide only authorized personnel access to the patient data

·        Strong encryption protocols assured that confidential information about patient remains safe.

·        Paper based records system creates a number of safety risks and it can be problematic to notice when they have been interfered with.

Electronic health records make your patient data in secure backups can be maintained, empowering your organization to rapidly improve after a disaster of data.