A new American Medical Association study reveals that the estimated costs associated with ICD-10 implementation are substantially higher than previous estimates.
ICD-10 implementation costs include training, vendor and software upgrades, testing and payment disruption.
In 2008, estimated costs for ICD-10 implementation in a typical small practice was $83,000; in a typical medium practice, it was $285,000; in a typical large practice, it was $2.73 million.
2014 estimates bring costs for a typical small practice up to as high as $226,000; for a typical medical practice, as high as $825,000; for a typical large practice, as high as $8.02 million.
One effective way to reduce the time and costs associated with ICD-10 implementation is for providers to outsource their billing to a medical billing company. When you outsource your medical billing, you will save money on the upfront ICD-10 training costs and the costs of training new staff when billers and coders leave your organization. You will save money by eliminating the costs associated with purchasing expensive hardware and software (and their associated upgrade and maintenance costs) for billing staff.
There’s also the peace of mind of not having to worry about preparing to handle the approximately 68,000 new codes. A good medical billing company like PGM Billing will make sure the ICD-10 codes are mapped correctly, will know when insurance companies intend to make the switch from ICD-9 and will make sure the proper claims forms are filled out and submitted correctly.
So whether your organization needs to implement ICD-10 for lab billing, nephrologist billing or surgery center medical billing, outsourcing your medical billing is an effective way to significantly reduce the costs, time and stress associated with ICD-10 implementation while ensuring you continue to capture the reimbursement you organization rightly earns.