New Tool Makes Bi-Directional Code Mapping Possible
By Megan Williams, contributing writer
If your healthcare IT clients haven’t already expressed concerns over mapping issues between ICD-9 and -10, they undoubtedly will, after the deadline hits in seven months.
To address some of the biggest issues, a research team lead by Andrew D. Boyd, has created a web portal tool that takes on the convolution and confusion that come about when moving between the two coding systems.
The Tool
The Web-based tool (as featured in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association) addresses the complexity of bi-directional conversion needs and their level of complexity, including identity, class-to-subclass, subclass-to-class, convoluted, and no mapping.
It also provides aids on complex, or ambiguous, translations to give users insight into where reports or analyses may be difficult or not possible at all.
The more complex and convoluted the codes are, the more time and resources healthcare providers, payers, and intermediaries will need to conduct queries and perform analytics. Many organizations will even find themselves in a position where they will need to consider hiring consulting firms to begin dual-coding testing months before the transition. The study authors acknowledge all of these challenges: “We are providing a web portal and annotated tables to help administrators, clinicians, and coders quantitatively and qualitatively evaluate the financial and compliance risks associated to querying and analyzing datasets coded historically in ICD-9-CM and thereafter in ICD-10-CM (“Methods,” Table 2). Indeed, consulting firms and specialty organizations have even recommended dual coding during a few months of the transition period, which very few organizations can afford.”
Uses
The tool and information behind its development will be useful to your clients including coding agencies, coders, institutions, and other providers. It will also be important in the use of patient cohorts in the evaluation of fellowships, group practices, residencies, and physicians. The study explains, “The comprehensive approach of our tool will allow physicians, training programs, researchers, administrators, health systems, and others to compare diseases across this transition from ICD-9-CM to ICD-10-CM, since the tool for cohort discovery includes all but 1 percent of the ICD-9-CM codes and 1 percent of ICD-10-CM codes.”
The Future
Moving forward, studies will need to look for variations in procedures and diagnoses, as well as inpatient consistencies across facilities. Coding styles will also have an impact.