{"id":315,"date":"2011-05-09T15:21:17","date_gmt":"2011-05-09T19:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.poweryourpractice.com\/?p=315"},"modified":"2025-10-20T15:03:59","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T15:03:59","slug":"physicians-prepare-for-surprising-cost-of-icd-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/physicians-prepare-for-surprising-cost-of-icd-10\/","title":{"rendered":"Physicians Prepare for Surprising Cost of ICD-10"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As the date to switch to the <strong>ICD-10 diagnostic coding system<\/strong> gets closer, medical practices have one question: <strong>How much is implementation going to cost?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Nachimson Advisors, LLC was retained by several healthcare organizations to answer that very question. After crunching the numbers, the final <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aapc.com\/ICD-10\/faq.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cost of implementing ICD-10<\/a> appears unsettling.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>While the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced in January that ICD-10 coding wouldn\u2019t be mandated until October 2013, it makes sense for practices to start planning now to make the transition less painful.<\/p>\n<p>Completely changing coding systems is no small task for the healthcare industry, but switching from approximately <strong>13,000 codes to roughly 70,000 codes<\/strong> is reason for concern.<\/p>\n<p>The complexity of the new code implementation is best illustrated by the cost estimates reported by the study and shown below.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Small Practice Cost<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>(3 physicians, 2 staff)<\/strong><br \/>\nStaff Training &amp; Education: $2,405<br \/>\nBusiness-Process Analysis: $6,900<br \/>\nSuperbill Changes: $2,985<br \/>\nIT System Upgrades: $7,500<br \/>\nCash Flow Disruption: $19,500<br \/>\nIncreased Documentation: $44,000<br \/>\n<strong>Total: $83,290 <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Medium Practice Cost<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>(10 providers, 1 full-time coder, 6 staff)<\/strong><br \/>\nStaff Training &amp; Education: $4,745<br \/>\nBusiness-Process Analysis: $12,000<br \/>\nSuperbill Changes: $9,950<br \/>\nIT System Upgrades: $15,000<br \/>\nCash Flow Disruption: $65,000<br \/>\nIncreased Documentation: $178,500<br \/>\n<strong>Total: $285,195 <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Large Practice Cost<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>(100 providers, 64 coding staff &#8212; 10 full-time coders, 54 medical records staff)<\/strong><br \/>\nStaff Training &amp; Education: $46,280<br \/>\nBusiness-Process Analysis: $48,000<br \/>\nSuperbill Changes: $99,500<br \/>\nIT System Upgrades: $100,000<br \/>\nCash Flow Disruption: $650,000<br \/>\nIncreased Documentation: $1,785,000<br \/>\n<strong>Total: $2,728,780<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The study was conducted by Nachimson Advisors on behalf of: American Academy of Dermatology, American Academy of Professional Coders, American Association of Neurological Surgeons, American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons, American Clinical Laboratory Association, American College of Physicians, American Medical Association, American Optometric Association, American Physical Therapy Association, American Society of Anesthesiology, and the Medical Group Management Association.<\/p>\n<p>Get more info about the ICD-10 cost impact study.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What are you doing to prepare for the ICD-10 switch? Post below and let us know.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the date to switch to the ICD-10 diagnostic coding system gets closer, medical practices have one question: How much is implementation going to cost? Nachimson Advisors, LLC was retained by several healthcare organizations to answer that very question. After crunching the numbers, the final cost of implementing ICD-10 appears unsettling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43171,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[38],"class_list":["post-315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-revenue","tag-icd-10"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Physicians Prepare for Surprising Cost of ICD-10 - Continuum<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Making the transition to ICD-10? 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