ATLANTA, March 31, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MedAssets (Nasdaq: MDAS ) announces its response to today's Congressional vote that delays the ICD-10 compliance date to October 1, 2015. The "doc fix" bill passed by the U.S. Senate averts a reduction in Medicare provider payments but included language that rolls back national adoption of new claim code sets.
"We support the industry adoption of the ICD-10 sets, which are used in more than 100 countries, with the United States remaining as one of the few nations in the developed world that has not yet transitioned since they were established in 1992," said MedAssets Chief Operating Officer Mike Nolte. "The federal government mandated ICD-10 code compliance because it will align more directly with the capture of clinical detail in patient procedures and services and provide a more effective, more consistent backbone for critical healthcare information."
"Our business position is that adoption of ICD-10 remains a question of 'when' not 'if,'" Nolte continued, "And we encourage our clients to proceed with plans and preparations in full force. MedAssets maintains its focus and business priorities in helping our clients, partners and payors with comprehensive efforts to support their transition to ICD-10 and to sustain their revenue capture and cash flow performance."
Nolte added that, as a company providing solutions to four out of five hospitals and 122,000 non-acute providers in the United States, MedAssets reports client reaction across the nation is mixed.
"A one-year delay provides welcome breathing room for some organizations coping with ongoing financial pressures and concurrent 2014 regulatory mandates—including complying with provisions of the Affordable Care Act and attestation for Stage 2 Meaningful Use," he said. "For others, the delay will present frustration and exacerbate financial constraints due to committed resources and budget for ICD-10 transition plans that will need to be adjusted and continued for a longer period of time."
Comprehensive Support for Go-Live and Post Go-Live Sustainability
For financial leaders, the real impact of ICD-10 extends beyond the actual changes in codes and poses impact to staff productivity across their business enterprise. In 2013, MedAssets developed an ICD-10 Playbook to help clients minimize coding delays, improve time to bill and capture all net revenue owed as they navigate the transition. This comprehensive guide walks clients through what the transition means and how to best prepare.
MedAssets offers a comprehensive portfolio of exception-driven technologies and extensive ICD-10 readiness support services, including impact assessments, technology testing, project management and implementation services, as well as staff training and education by claims coding experts to support hospitals both with the code set adoption and remaining cash positive during the transition.
- All relevant solutions in the MedAssets revenue cycle solution portfolio meet the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) current ICD-10 standards.
- The company is on schedule in testing its Web-based applications for successful ICD-10 data sharing with all payors. In early March, the company supported 75 percent of its Claims Management system clients in ICD-10 testing with Medicare.
The company's comprehensive support for ICD-10 transition support includes:
- Contract management and modeling to help providers negotiate more favorable contracts, identify payor trends and model the impact of ICD-10 by incorporating robust data analytics and subject matter consulting expertise
- Clinical documentation improvement to increase staff knowledge and understanding of existing and new ICD-10 coding to improve coding accuracy and coding compliance to enable efficient billing, appropriate reimbursement and steady cash flow
- Charge capture improvement to identify potential lost revenue and charge issues before claims are submitted for improved billing compliance and revenue capture, and to create a "safety net" to help identify post-ICD-10 process issues
- Coding, compliance and reference tools to assist staff in using the new codes
- Revenue performance improvement consulting to optimize charge, billing and claims processes to best practice now in anticipation of new denial and A/R challenges post-transition
For more information on MedAssets ICD-10 readiness, please visit the company's ICD-10 resource page to read articles, blogs and MedAssets corporate readiness statement.
About MedAssets
MedAssets (Nasdaq: MDAS ) is a healthcare performance improvement company focused on helping providers realize financial and operational gains so that they can sustainably serve the needs of their community. More than 4,400 hospitals and 122,000 non-acute healthcare providers currently use the company's evidence-based solutions, best practice processes and analytics to help reduce the total cost of care , enhance operational efficiency , align clinical delivery , and improve revenue performance across the are continuum. For more information, please visit www.medassets.com .
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