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At a time when industry bodies and consultancies are trying tofigure out how providers and payers can best transform existingICD-9 data into the imminent ICD-10 code schemes, and the word "crosswalk" keeps beingbatted around, Dennis Winkler at Blue Cross Blue Shield Michigan isthe curious case of an ICD-10 crosswalk contrarian, believing he'sfound a better path. Winkler, it seems, just might be ontosomething that appears revolutionary but in practice is not. As Blue Cross Blue Shield Michigan's director of technical programmanagement, Winkler and his team were inundated with all sorts ofvendors telling them how hard the ICD-10 conversion was going tobe, how many more codes there are, and why they desperately need ahuge technical solution including application crosswalks. Ratherthan cowering into a confused state, however, Winkler recognizedthe dollar signs in the eyes of those vendors chomping at the bit,and figured out how to go it alone. [Related: Surveys say how health org's plan to comply with HIPAA 5010, ICD-10 . Podcast: Proper planning for ICD-10 training .] "Right out of the chute, when we developed our team to startlooking at the strategy, everyone was telling us how radicallydifferent this was going to be. And granted, there are differencesin the field size, in the nomenclature, and as we understood thedifferences we kept saying, 'Isn"t there something we coulddo to look at it differently?'" That answer, of course, is yes, and when they did Winkler and histeam realized that by altering their existing systems andapplications for the 7 digit ICD-10 codes, they'd be putting BCBSMichigan into a better position than if they opted to crosswalkfrom existing ICD-9 data to ICD-10. "As soon as we started looking it that way," Winkler continues, "we startedseeing more similarities in everything that we have to do, asopposed to the technical difficulties." Stanley Nachimson, co-chair of WEDI's timeline initiative, agrees."Crosswalks are the quick-and-dirty fix that everyone islooking for," Nachimson says. "Updating your systemsand processes to accept and process ICD-10 codes is better for thefuture." If that sounds anything resembling easy, well, it"s not. "There"s a huge amount of work that has to be done onthe business side to accomplish this," Winkler says."The technical side turns out to be high-volume butlow-complexity." WEDI"s Nachimson told ICD10Watch that ICD-10 is approximately 25 percent technology, and 75 percenta business issue. Agreeing, Winkler adds that BCBS Michigan brokeit out by function, those being tasks the business performs versuswhat IT handles, to determine about a 70-30 split in which thelargest impact is on the business side. That reality is part of what makes the ICD-10 conversion somassive, as is the fact that crosswalks are not a panacea becausethere is no one-to-one map from ICD-9 to ICD-10, says ToriSullivan, a manager in Capgemini's healthcare unit and co-chair of HIMSS ICD-10 task force. "Every organization has to make business decisions onscenario bases for code translations that take an ICD-9 code intoan ICD-10 code and backward," Sullivan explains. "Therehas to be a business process within a business decision to supportthe change." That said, the CMS-3M crosswalks, of course, do have their place.Sharon Perkins, director of IT and the HIPAA Security Officer at ElPaso First Health Plan, says her organization is planning to usethe CMS crosswalk. [Related: 5 Factors critical to HIPAA 5010, ICD-10 success . See also: Top 5 HIPAA 5010, ICD-10 hurdles .] "When you"ve got something with a greater level ofspecificity, you"re going to want to see what that one ICD-9code was to the 50 that it may be on the ICD-10 side. And if youshore yourself up, and have a mapping for that specificity, thebetter results you"ll have from capitalizing on the greaterinformation available at your disposal," Perkins explains."It"s going to be imperative that you"re doingapples to apples across the board. And if you stick with a standardguideline crosswalk, you"ll be more in tune with what therest of the people – providers, facilities, or any otherentity that you have a relationship with – are doing." Perkins' take may be more representative of the healthcare industryat large, at least as of today, but Winkler is not exactly a lonewolf in shunning crosswalks, even if his pack consists mostly ofbrethren BCBS units. "All the Blues are invited," touse his approach, he points out. Any takers? "Two of theother plans are using exactly the same solution, the same approach,that we"re taking and so there are others. I can"t sayhow many, but we know that some are out there.". The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as Pico Mini Projector , HDMI Composite Video Converter, and more. For more , please visit 7 Inch Tablet Pc today!
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