ICD 10 – a solid case for business transformation
Business transformation by definition is an initiative to align People, Process and Technology initiatives to the company’s strategy, vision and long term objectives, with defined outcomes such as 30% reduction in operational costs or 70% increase in customer satisfaction.
A major business transformation has become necessary in the healthcare industry to control costs and put a check on the steep rise of health insurance premiums. And ICD-10 is just the right opportunity.
ICD-10 is not just another new code-set. ICD codes are the basic building blocks of clinical diagnosis and procedures. ICD codes are also used to negotiate provider rates and to pay claims. Combine these with the fact that the level of granularity is increasing tenfold in ICD-10 and you have a legislation that has its impact running across systems, processes and human resources.
ICD-10 implementation across the organization is going to be a business transformation in itself. Organizations can go beyond and embark upon strategic initiatives as well. For example, ICD-10 is a good opportunity to phase out aging and inflexible claims systems or to modernize legacy claims systems into service oriented architecture. The cost of implementing such strategic initiatives may be well justified in view of the cost to implement ICD-10 in inflexible systems.
While major policy changes, that are currently underway, may control the cost of healthcare in the United States, there is going to be a multi-year wait period before any concrete results are seen. Status-quo should not be acceptable with more and more people joining the uninsured or underinsured population. ICD-10 is one great opportunity to make a difference both in the short and long terms - to make health insurance affordable again to millions of Americans.
