Thursday, April 02, 2009

American Academy of Professional Coders, Gets Ready For ICD-10 Implementation Plan

April 1st, 2009

Plan includes preparation, training and implementation guidance for payers and providers

In response to the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS’) final rule on the Oct. 1, 2013 implementation date for the new ICD-10-CM code system, the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC, www.aapc.com) announces a comprehensive, five-year ICD-10-CM training plan. The plan, which launches in September, is designed to guide providers, payers and coders through the implementation process step by step.

“Our comprehensive ICD-10 implementation plan is designed with the right approach and the right curriculum, coupled with the right timing for the trainings,” said Reed Pew, CEO and president of the AAPC. “The goal of this training program is to enable coders, administrators and others—whether in the provider or payer environment—to be well prepared and make such a clean transition that there is no interruption in payment flows.”

The plan is broken down by year (2009 – 2013) and includes a variety of delivery methods, such as Webinars, audio conferences, onsite training and national and regional conferences. A team of leading coding and ICD-10 experts developed the plan, which is broken into benchmarked steps.

As part of the implementation plan, the AAPC will provide its members with a “Personal Progress Tracker,” which gives members the ability to easily enter in personal progress with red, yellow and green lights that indicate whether the member is on schedule or not. More information, including the detailed plan and training program, is available on the AAPC’s Web site at http://www.aapc.com/ICD-10/training.aspx.

HHS’ final rule, announced in January, moved the implementation date from 2011 to 2013, allowing more time for training. The AAPC was instrumental in the final rule, with more than 60 percent of the comments submitted during the comment period coming from AAPC members.

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