ICD 10 Delayed – Again

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services posted in August 2014 that the road to ICD-10 compliance will be another year longer.  The new date for conversion is 10/1/2015.  As we’ve published before, this conversion is long over due and WILL be coming at some point even if they keep pushing back the date.

This conversion was not a part of the Affordable Care Act, so if you are thinking that if the ACA goes away so will this conversion and that is just simply “head in the sand” thinking.  This is an implementation of a international coding standard and we here in the US are just behind the curve with the rest of the western world in using this new classification system.  We do need to catch up and we eventually will.  Don’t let this conversion scare you out of your practice!  I have had a lot of providers tell me that they will quit first before converting, and that just isn’t practical.  ICD-10 will benefit the medical community by increasing the accuracy of diagnosis coding and allow entitlement programs and insurance carriers to gain more specificity in tracking diagnosis populations.  With more specificity comes more attention which leads to more reimbursement for the provider.

If you are a small practice, I urge you to check out the CMS website for the “Road to 10” implementation map

Road to 10: CMS Online Tool for Small Practices

CMS has released Road to 10, an online resource built with the help of providers in small practices, is now available. This tool is intended to help small medical practices jumpstart their ICD-10 transition.

“Road to 10” includes specialty references and gives providers the capability to build ICD-10 action plans tailored for their practice needs.

Also, VE Cycle Management specializes in providing solutions that are already ICD-10 ready.  We can help!  Contact us today!

ICD-10 Delay

So on 3/31/14 both the house and senate voted on a “Dr. Fix” bill that included language for another one year delay on the ICD-10 implementation.  CMS has been saying for more than a year that there will be no more delays…period… Then what does the congress do? Overrule them.  Many healthcare organizations are speaking out that the delay portion of the bill did not have to be included. That congress has once again cost us billions of dollars by not listening to their constituency or the experts when it comes to throwing in additional pieces of legislature just to pad the bill.  Here is what the American Healthcare Information Management Association had to say: http://journal.ahima.org/2014/03/31/senate-votes-on-icd-10-delay-bill/

While most experts agree it was a stupid move to include the delay in the bill, now providers are wondering what they are supposed to do.  Check out this link: http://www.fiercehealthit.com/story/icd-10-delay-how-providers-should-respond/2014-04-02

As far as VE Cycle Management is concerned we are going to continue to prepare our clients for ICD-10 as part of what we do for them daily.  Providers now have some extra time to train, map and migrate and may think that the road to full implementation will be slowed again.  The point is and the point that my company will emphasize is “don’t put off tomorrow what you can do today!” 

ICD-10 is still coming, we are the only western nation still on ICD-9, most of Europe is on ICD-11 so it’s just a matter of time and you have to make sure your staff, technology, and you are ready for it.  Ask us, we’ll help!

The Perils of Business Ownership

Now don’t get me wrong, I love being my own boss.  This is what I have waited for all my life, I think.  When you have been raised under the poverty line you do everything you can to make sure that when you finally get to be an adult that you never dip below that line again.

Thus has been my goal throughout my life.  I think when you add children into the mix it becomes a serious goal.  Reaching my 30s-40s it seemed like the stuff I had gave me status in my mind.  I had a house, garage, 2 cars, a kid, nice stuff.  I must have made it somehow.  Certainly better than my parents did, I thought, in my mind.  As I am moving out of my 40s and soon into the big 5-0 I realized that I had it all wrong.  As a person with an innate entrepreneurial spirit, you are always wanting more, and it isn’t more stuff.  That isn’t what does it.  It’s more meaning and purpose in your life that turns the motor on.  I realized this when I buried my parents 7 months and 10 days apart.  All their stuff, their memories, prized possessions now became scrutinized by everyone and their purpose in life became increasingly more obscured.  What were they here for.  Surely this pile of old clothes and pots and pans didn’t tell that story.

So I began my journey into business ownership because I wanted my purpose in life to be more important than what the money from a “job” got me.  Oh I won’t lie, when the business isn’t doing well all I am thinking about is what am I going to have to give up or what am I going to lose, my house, my car, all of it.  But yet I still get up and I still try and find new ways to get my business name and purpose out there, I’m not giving up the spirit that drives me, that innate entrepreneurial spirit that has taken hold of me and made me the mad woman I am today.

I love running the show, I love being my own boss, I love what I do for the first time.  Is it scary…HELL TO THE YEAH!  But it’s my rules, my vision, my choice.  I’ve got some great support and one hell of a marketing director and we are going to make it.  And for the first time in decades my back brain is not saying “you should be doing something else, this isn’t you”.  You don’t know how long I have wanted to quiet that voice.  I think he’s finally speechless for a while.

So.. Hey, we are looking for funding!

Well, we have made a lot of contacts since Tracy and I really hit the pavement to keep doctors in private practice from being taken over by hospital and insurance conglomerates.  It’s been a rocky road; the recent government shutdown kept the hubby at home and within the last few weeks another contract I’d had has reduced my hours, so I decided that I believe so much in what we are doing, I am not too proud to beg….

As a result, here is our campaign on Indiegogo http://igg.me/at/vecycle/x/1859127 and our campaign on gofundme.com http://www.gofundme.com/vecycle

Our perks are pretty good if I do say so myself!  Go get yourself a T-Shirt or an iPad Mini!!

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Welcome to VE Cycle Management

Hey did you ever think you wanted to be in business for yourself and then you woke up and you WERE!!  OMG, what have we done!

I think that is what makes VE Cycle Management special is that it’s family owned and we got a great marketing director that makes all the difference in finding us doctors and providers to talk to.

Next time you visit your provider, check to see if they have a ton of charts on the wall.  If they do, we can help them.  Just tell them that they need to talk to us at www.vettersenterprises.com