Calculating ICD-10's true costs
Indirect costs need to be factored in
If you think calculating the true cost of the ICD-10 transition will be easy, think again. Sure you can call healthcare vendors to get quotes on modifications to software and hardware, upgrades and purchases of new software, systems and equipment.
But that's not the whole price. You need to get your best estimates of the following elements:
[See also: Providers overlook ICD-10 value equation]
• Education
◦ Coder training
◦ Clinician education
◦ Awareness raising
• Testing-related costs
• Staff time needed for:
◦ Implementation planning
◦Training
◦ Testing
◦ Vendor management
• Temp staffing to assist with extra work resulting from:
◦ Decreased coding productivity
◦ Billing backlogs
◦ Claims denial and rejection management
◦ IT work on upgrades and systems
◦ Lost time during training
• Consulting services
• Forms and reports
◦ Redesign
◦ Printing costs
• Data conversion
• Dual coding
◦ Added time
◦ Maintaining data collection
◦ Analyzing data
It's important to realize that not all costs are direct – purchases and fees. There will be indirect costs that can drain resources just as much. Either you will have to pay labor costs to fill in the work required to manage and implement the ICD-10 tasks or accept the loss of productivity.
