No one can explain to me how quadrupling the number of diagnosis codes is going to do anything other than decrease quality of care for patients - it certainly isn't going to improve quality of care. And I wonder when the stats will come out to show how many smaller practices either had to close their doors or be "gobbled up" by a larger entity. Didn't we go through the hospital-buying-physician-practices era already? And didn't most hospitals divest themselves of their physician practice investments? Are we going in this circle AGAIN? If our doors are still open at this time next year, it will be a miracle. The $226,000 price tag is around three times what my husband makes in a year as the physician running his own solo practice. I figured out that last year, he made about $22 an hour. Of course, he works over 70 hours/week with patients, paperwork, etc.... If these codes are going to increase the documentation requirements by 15-20%, I'm not sure where he is going to find the extra hours. And we cannot afford to hire any extra staff since the new Medicaid-expansion plans pay us about 30-50% BELOW overhead (overhead doesn't include physician salary), but we need extra staff to be able to keep up with all the regulations and prior authorizations and difficulty finding offices who will accept referrals. It is a mess, and it is only going to get worse.
CMS has announced that it
will not extend the October ICD-10 deadline for providers.
With all of the other extensions of federal health care deadlines, the
steadfastness on this deadline stands out. If you're unsure what it's all
about, this
summary gives the details.
If you ask providers - particularly
smaller clinics - their anxiety about the infrastructure updates required to
meet the ICD-10 deadlines is visceral. An AMA
study points to costs as much as $226,000
for the "typical small practice."
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