DecisionHealth, DecisionHealth - 2015 Issue 10 (October)
A bad ICD-10 day one: ‘Several people were in tears'
Not every ICD-10 launch day story was happy. The day was “extremely stressful” for Terry Schaefer, office manager for Raymond H. Schaerf M.D., a thoracic and cardiothoracic surgeon in Burbank, Calif.
It wasn’t her staff that was the trouble; they were all prepared. But “our billing program and electronic record systems were having trouble accepting the ICD 10 codes,” says Schaefer. “The consults were so complicated, we couldn't code them as we saw the patients,” and they piled up throughout the day.
Also, several of Dr. Schaerf’s surgery referrals were coded to ICD-9, which made it necessary to translate them before patients could be seen – “the surgery schedulers were having problems finding the ICD 10 codes necessary for the surgeries,” Schaefer said.
“Several people were in tears. Everyone was so far behind,” says Schaefer. “We finally had to resort to ordering food for our staff so we could stay late to catch up.”
Schaefer says she’s learned her lesson: “Starting today, no referral will be accepted without proper ICD 10 codes.”
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