Texas Organization Of Rural & Community Hospitals Foundation Prepares For ICD-10 Transition With QuadraMed's Products And Services
68 Texas hospitals choose QuadraMed's ICD-10 Countdown Program and Readiness Assessment services to mitigate expected productivity losses during ICD-10 conversion
QuadraMed Corporation, a leading provider of healthcare technologies and services, announced today that the Texas Organization of Rural & Community Hospitals (TORCH).
Foundation, through a grant from the Texas Department of Rural Affairs (TDRA), is offering the QuadraMed ICD-10 Countdown Program and Readiness Assessment Services to its 150 member hospitals. Nearly 70 hospitals have contracted for the ICD-10 Countdown Program, to date, with the goal of minimizing anticipated coding delays during ICD-10 conversion.
The QuadraMed ICD-10 Countdown Program provides hospitals and healthcare organizations with hands-on training, assessment services and proven coding technology to ensure a smooth transition to ICD-10 adoption. In contrast to the limited conversion tools supplied by other software providers, the QuadraMed ICD-10 Countdown Program supplies hospital coding professionals with an accelerated ICD-10 educational program that includes real-world ICD-10 simulation training within live production environments. The introductory offering of QuadraMed's ICD-10 Solutions consists of:
- Quantim ICD-10 Coding Simulator application
- ICD-10 Fundamentals educational tool
- Online application tutorial - Countdown to ICD-10
- Admission and participation in QuadraMed's ICD-10 community bulletin board
- ICD-10 Readiness Assessment
"Every hospital is concerned about the potential adverse administrative effects, as well as coding backlogs, that can occur during the transition to ICD-10," said Quang Ngo, chief executive officer of the TORCH Foundation. "Through TDRA and TORCH, healthcare providers have the opportunity to leverage QuadraMed's ICD-10 educational and training products and services, which ensure that coders are fully educated and comfortable in the new coding environment prior to ICD-10 conversion."
Designed for immediate accessibility across geographically dispersed healthcare organizations, the Quantim ICD-10 Coding Simulator application -- the core technology of the QuadraMed ICD-10 Countdown Program -- is web-based and does not require special hardware or IT interfaces.
"QuadraMed was the first to launch an ICD-10 coding simulator in early 2010, and we continue to lead the industry with our unique ICD-10 Countdown Program, which is intended to take health systems from initial readiness analysis to real-life training scenarios," said Duncan W. James, QuadraMed CEO. "Given Canada's experience of a 23 to 50 percent decrease in coder productivity during their ICD-10 conversion, we created an ICD-10 training program and Readiness Assessment service to help keep U.S. health systems running smoothly and effectively during the conversion."
Prior to October 1, 2013, healthcare providers that fall under HIPAA provisions, regardless of whether they submit Medicare or Medicaid claims, must have completed their conversion from ICD-9 to ICD-10. The increase in code sets is dramatic, with disease classifications increasing from 13,000 ICD-9-CM to 68,000 ICD-10-CM and procedure classifications rising from 3,000 ICD-9-PCS to 78,000 ICD-10-PCS. Healthcare organizations not using ICD-10 by the deadline risk losing part of their CMS reimbursement.
The QuadraMed ICD-10 Countdown Program is available to health systems, medical groups, consultants and medical coding and educational institutions within the United States. For more information, visit www.quadramed.com/icd-10.
Texas Department of Rural Affairs
Texas Department of Rural Affairs makes the resources of state government more accessible to rural communities. The agency is a provider of rural-focused state and federal resources for community development, economic development, housing and rural health. TDRA is the governor's lead agency for oversight of disaster recovery funding, and administers the non-housing portion of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) disaster recovery fund. TDRA is the federally designated State Office of Rural Health. For more information, visit TDRA online at http://www.tdra.state.tx.us.
Texas Organization of Rural and Community Hospitals (TORCH) Foundation
The TORCH Foundationis a non-profit affiliate of the Texas Organization of Rural & Community Hospitals. Founded originally for the purpose of developing a rural telecommunications infrastructure and network for rural hospitals in Texas, the Foundation has expanded its mission over the years to meet the growing needs, priorities and challenges of rural and community hospitals. Today, the Foundation focuses on health information technology, hospital network services and support, performance improvement, grant assistance and education. For more information about the TORCH Foundation, visit http://foundation.torchnet.org.
About QuadraMed Corporation
QuadraMed is a leading provider of award-winning healthcare technologies and services that help turn quality care into positive financial outcomes. QuadraMed provides proven, flexible solutions that help make our clients successful by streamlining processes, ensuring compliance and helping healthcare professionals improve the quality of patient care. Behind the Company's products and services is a staff of 600 professionals who support clients at over 2,000 healthcare provider facilities. For more information, visit http://www.quadramed.com.
SOURCE: QuadraMed Corporation