With computer-assisted coding technology increasing with technology processes, but more because of the ICD-10 transition, there is an immediate need for coding professionals to begin redefining coding roles and functions to meet emerging and future coding opportunities. Medical coding is something that requires specialized expertise and systems tailored to regulatory requirements.
In what appears to be a timely presentation, John Kuranz, CEO of Access Integrity, walked the group gathered at the 9th Annual Data Harmony Users Group through the major events that are taking place in healthcare. We talked extensively about the ICD-10 coding classification that will be implemented on October 1, 2014. Many are facing the challenges that implementation poses, and then not far behind that is ICD-11 going live in 2014.
Most of you who have studied library science or information science are familiar with faceted classification as developed by Indian mathematician and librarian S. R. Ranganathan (1892-1972). His main contribution was the colon classification system the first faceted classification. It allowed multiple multiple classifications to be assigned to an object, rather than a single pre-coordinated taxonomic designation. Dr. Ranganathan is still pretty popular in the search world, especially in e-commerce. The Endeca faceted search module is popular with online marketers, because they are looking at lots of different kinds of ways to filter data.
Most healthcare organizations were pleased with the year delay for the ICD-10 implementation, but October 2014 is still coming fast. The transition efforts should not be relaxed.
Pingar recently introduced its beta Taxonomy Generator Service, which will enable enterprises to generate instant taxonomies from an analysis of the content on large internal document sets.
MedTouch has launched two strategic websites: washington.providence.org and montana.providence.org. Both websites are powered by the MedTouch Healthcare Accelerator Package for Sitecore.
If indexing is an art to you, then this event will be right up your alley. "The Art and Craft of Indexing" is the theme at the American Society for Indexing's annual conference in San Antonio, TX on April 17-20, 2013.
Many are concerned about the financial burden that the ICD-10 implementation might create for healthcare providers. However, there are some ways the physicians can improve the clinical documentation and therefore the coding reimbursements. Being creatures of habit, they have tended to rely on memorized codes. If the reliance on memorization is minimized, reimbursements can improve. There are more anatomic specific codes in the new system, and that makes memorization even more difficult.
Daminion Software has released its digital asset management (DAM) system, appropriately named Daminion Server. This program is targeted to home users who want to create a centralized photo and video archive that could be accessible from all computers in a local network.