What are third-party medical billing companies going to be talking about at this year’s HBMA conference?
“I think the ICD-10 5010 implementation and the HITECH Act will be central topics of discussion. There are many other very important compliance topics, but these two have the most immediate operational impact on HBMA members. They will demand the biggest changes in costs, training requirements and daily operations for billing companies.” With regard to ICD-10, do you expect that there will continue to be delays in implementation? “That depends on whom you ask. (The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) has said there will be no delays, but there are a lot of issues involved. If you look at where the industry is in regard to preparation, what needs to be accomplished and some of the hurdles to implementation, I frankly don’t see how there won’t be delays. However, we are encouraging our members to prepare as best they can. Some of our members attended the WEDI meeting in August, and the commercial payers have been very candid. They are not going to convert immediately. Instead, th
