Just where does your Radiation Oncology medical practice billing stand when it comes to preparations for ICD-10? Yours might be among the 55.4 percent of medical practices (as of June 2013) in the United States that hasn’t started or has barely begun preparations.
Even if your practice is in the remaining 45.6 percent, you’re most likely in process but maybe not making the progress you were hoping in order to meet the Oct. 1, 2014 implementation deadline.
Relax, because you’re about to read important updates to help keep you abreast of current developments so you can prepare for a seamless transition. Preparation centers around the three medical billing and coding “Ts” (transition, training and testing) as they pertain to radiation oncology practices.
ICD-10 Coding Transition
To begin with, ASTRO has conducted a recent review of the neoplasm diagnostic codes, suggesting that the transition from ICD-9 may very well be pretty straightforward for the subset of codes for Radiation Oncology revenue cycle management. Below is a chart providing relevant mapping examples:
ICD-10 Training and Testing
The time is now to move forward with the ICD-10 support you need to keep your Radiation Oncology coding one step ahead. But it takes special expertise in healthcare revenue cycle management that includes team training and system testing. The following is an update on testing from Optum to help medical practices fully prepare by the Oct. 1, 2014 deadline.
ICD-10 functionality for Optum Professional CAC was first released to beta clients in June 2013 and will be generally available to the full client base in October 2013. Beta clients will have access to a dedicated beta system. Details regarding the site configuration updates required for ICD-10 processing, along with billing rule and straight-to-bill migration plans, will be communicated in late summer 2013 in advance of General Availability.
NLP updates of ICD-10 capabilities will be released at regular intervals (8 weeks) to all ICD-10 CAC clients prior to Oct 1, 2014. Release efforts will include focus on beta customer expectations and effectively build towards national engine performance goals. After Oct 1, 2014, releases for ICD-10 will follow the normal update cycle for the production LifeCode NLP engine.
Special expertise in outsourced Radiation Oncology revenue cycle management is not a preference nowadays but a necessity, especially as it related to ICD-10 implementation. It takes unsurpassed attention to detail and continual follow through to not only decrease compliance risk but also generate the greatest percentage of revenue for Radiation Oncology practices.
Few medical coding and billing teams can uncover developments in intra-operative radiation therapy coding and billing, billing evaluation/management services on the same day as drug administration and billing basic dosimetry calculations for IMRT courses like revMD.com can. Their certified coders understand complex techniques such as stereotactic, intra-operative and IMRT, and zero in on what many facilities increasingly overlook – coding and documentation for basic processes.
revMD.com is the results-proven alternative for physician medical billing, with a niche specialization in Radiation Oncology coding and billing and ICD-10 implementation that generates unprecedented results and builds profitable medical practices. Leveraging a history of industry wide success spanning 26 years, revMD.com partners with medical practices throughout the U.S. to optimize revenue for hospital based and community based physicians. For more information, visit www.revmd.com.