A Seamless Navigation to ICD-10-CM for Interventional Pain Physicians: Is a Rude Awakening Avoidable?

Since October 1, 2015, the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) was integrated into U.S. medical practices. This monumental transition seemingly occurred rather unceremoniously, despite significant opposition and reservations having been expressed by the provider community. In prior publications, we have described various survival strategies for interventional pain physicians. The regulators and beneficiaries of system-CMS, consultants, and health information technology industry are congratulating themselves for a job well done. Nonetheless, this transition comes at an immeasurable financial and psychological drain on providers. However, a rude awakening may be making its way with expiration of initial concessions from government and private payers.This manuscript provides a template for interventional pain management professionals with multiple steps for seamless navigation, including descriptions of the most commonly used codes, navigation through ICD-10-CM manual, steps for correct coding, and finally, detailed coding descriptions for various interventional techniques.

Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) for Interventional Pain Management Practices: Challenges and Opportunities.

Basing their rationale on multiple publications from Institute of Medicine (IOM), specifically Crossing the Quality Chasm, policy makers have focused on a broad range of issues, including assessment of the influence of medical practice organization structures on quality performance and development of quality measures. The 2006 Tax Relief and Health Care Act established the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS), to enable eligible professionals to report health care quality and health outcome information that cannot be obtained from standard Medicare claims. However, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 required the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to incorporate a combination of cost and quality into the payment systems for health care as a precursor to value-based payments. The final change to PQRS pending initiation after 2018, is based on the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) which has incorporated alternative payment models and merit-based payment systems. Recent publication of quality performance scores by CMS has been less than optimal. When voluntary participation began in July 2007, providers were paid a bonus for reporting quality measures from 2008 through 2014, ranging from 0.5% to 2% of the Medicare Part B allowed charges furnished during the reporting period. Starting in 2015, penalties started for nonparticipation. Eligible professionals and group practices that failed to satisfactorily report data on quality measures during 2014 are subject to a 2% reduction in Medicare fee-for-service amounts for services furnished by the eligible professional or group practice during 2016. The CMS proposed rule for 2016 physician payments contained a number of provisions with proposed updates to the PQRS and Physician Value-Based Payment Modifier among other changes. The proposed rule is the first release since MACRA repealed the sustainable growth rate formula. CMS proposed to continue many existing policies regarding PQRS from 2015 to 2016. In addition, 2016 will be the year that is utilized to determine the 2018 PQRS payment adjustment. However, after 2018 the PQRS payment adjustment will be transitioned to the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), as required by MACRA. Overall, there will be over 280 measures in the 2016 PQRS.Readers might be surprised to find out that despite the cost intensity including time requirements personnel, the negative payment adjustments, are only the tip of the iceberg of cost. Indeed, all of the above may only be one-third or one-fourth of the cost to completely implement the PQRS system. Thus far, data across all specialties shows participation to be around 50%. In addition, penalties for lack of reporting of PQRS measures stands to be controversial to the Supreme Court ruling that unfunded mandates must not be permitted and also lack of significant relationships with improvement in quality in the overall analysis in multiple publications.

Survival Strategies for Tsunami of ICD-10-CM for Interventionalists: Pursue or Perish!

The unfunded mandate for the implementation of International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) is scheduled October 1, 2015. The development of ICD-10-CM has been a complicated process. We have endeavored to keep Interventional Pain Management doctors apprised via a variety of related topical manuscripts. The major issues relate to the lack of formal physician participation in its preparation. While the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and American Hospital Association (AHA) as active partners in its preparation. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are major players; 3M and Blue Cross Blue Shield Association are also involved. The cost of ICD-10-CM implementation is high, similar to the implementation of electronic health records (EHRs), likely consuming substantial resources. While ICD-10, utilized worldwide, includes 14,400 different codes, ICD-10-CM, specific for the United States, has expanded to 144,000 codes, which also includes procedural coding system. It is imperative for physicians to prepare for the mandatory implementation. Conversion from ICD-9-CM to ICD-10-CM coding in interventional pain management is not a conversion of one to one that can be easily obtained from software packages. It is a both a difficult and time-consuming task with each physician, early on, expected to spend on estimation at least 10 minutes per visit on extra coding for established and new patients. For interventional pain physicians, there have been a multitude of changes, including creation of new codes and confusing conversion of existing codes. This manuscript describes a variety of codes that are relevant to interventional pain physicians and often utilized in daily practices. It is our objective that this manuscript will provide coding assistance to interventional pain physicians.