Get Ready Now: Contact Your Software Vendors, Clearinghouses, and Billing Services

With ICD-10 less than 30 days away, now is the time to get ready. You can make sure your practice is prepared by following the ABCs of ICD-10:

• Assess how ICD-10 will affect your practice and make a plan
• Be sure your systems are ready
• Contact your vendors

Today, we’ll explore “C” – “Contact your vendors.”

If you aren’t sure your systems are ready for ICD-10, contact your vendors and other business trading partners.

Ask about testing opportunities

• Test with vendors, clearinghouses, billing services, and health plans to:
  • Verify that you can submit, receive, and process data with ICD-10 codes
  • Understand how ICD-10 updates affect the transactions you submit
  • Identify and address specific issues before October 1
• Check for testing opportunities at the website of the Cooperative Exchange, an association of clearinghouses.

Confirm vendors and products are ICD-10-ready

• Call your vendors to confirm the ICD-10 readiness of your practice’s systems
  • Confirm that the health plans, clearinghouses, and third-party billing services you work with are ICD-10 ready
  • Ask vendors, health plans, clearinghouses, and third-party billers about testing opportunities
  • Many EHR vendors are including ICD-10 in their systems or upgrades—at little or no cost to their customers
• You can use forms available in the Road to 10’s Template Library to guide discussions with vendors, health plans, clearinghouses, and billing services
• Double check that you’ve identified all systems that use ICD codes—e.g., practice management systems, claims submission systems, electronic health record (EHR) products—when contacting vendors
• Update contracts with vendors and health plans as needed

Keep Up to Date on ICD-10
Visit the CMS ICD-10 website and Roadto10.org for the latest news and resources to help you prepare. Sign up for CMS ICD-10 Email Updates and follow us on Twitter.