Step 1: Organizing the Implementation Effort

Hospitals should form a steering committee or team to oversee the ICD-10 strategy and planning implementation process. Key responsibilities for this committee include:

§ Implementing goals and timelines

§ Assessing the implementation impact

§ Determining the impact of affected functional areas

§ Assigning various tasks

§ Educating and training for information systems staff and coding staff on coding sets

The ICD-10 Steering Committee may vary according to the organization's implementation needs. To ensure the plan is appropriately coordinated across departments, each team should have sponsorship and support from a senior-level manager.

Representation should include members from the following departments:

Billing
Compliance
Finance
Health Information Management/Coding
Information Systems and Technology
Revenue Cycle Management

Step 2: Planning and Implementation Analysis

The planning and impact analysis should be completed by the end of first quarter 2010. Monthly meetings should be held to facilitate the process which involves developing:

An awareness campaign
A facility-wide inventory of your information systems
An assessment of vendor readiness
A "Master To-Do List"
An evaluation of health plan contract implications
A prepared budget

Step 3: Implementation

The implementation process should be addressed at biweekly meetings. The compliance date is October 1, 2013. Implementation involves:

Review resource requirements
Develop metrics to measure implementation progress
Review the testing and validation of system changes
Evaluate systems to determine what needs to be transitioned or replaced
Oversee the physician training on documentation

Monitor workflow volumes to avoid backlogs

Step 4: Post-implementation

The ICD-10 Steering Committee monthly meetings should be ongoing to:

Evaluate the success of the implementation
Review the reports of coded data quality
Evaluate the need for continued staff training
Review of coded data to ensure that cases continue to be reimbursed at the same rate or grouped to the same MS-DRG they would have been with ICD-9-CM