Wellington, FL -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/19/2013 -- Health Systems Management Network, Inc -Announces the “The Start Ten” program designed to support both the medical staffs and each member of the revenue cycle team to transition to ICD-10-CM and PCS Coding. The “Start Ten” program was designed by physicians for physicians with help from the best coders and trainers in the country.

Health Systems Management Network, Inc. (HSMN) has been working with hospitals and large practices on clinical documentation improvement and transition to all of the proceeding iterations of Coding. ICD-9-CM has incorporated much more specificity and deconstructing cases in the mode provides a clearer indicator for success in ICD-10-CM.

The HSMN experience with medical staff in every delivery environment has taught them many lessons, with the most important one being the fact that there is an enormous divide between clinical language and coding. Getting physicians to wrap their brains around the kind of specificity the new coding scheme requires is not only a science but also an art form.

For many years HSMN has used a technique that makes physicians more comfortable in learning the new things. HSMN deconstructs existing cases and parses them in exquisite detail enough so that physicians can see how much they have missed the mark in the current coding scheme.

The next step is to reconstruct each case from the current ICD-9 to the ICD -10 and then present them back to the medical staff. In this process the coders also have their role assessed and their judgment analyzed to see if they truly understand what is going on clinically for the patient.

HSMN’s approach allows both the physicians, coders and others in the revenue cycle to “Jump Start” the “Ten” process. Many hospitals will depend on vendors and their tools to transition them. They will also have sent Coders for ICD-10 training but the real success comes with working closely with the medical staff and finding champions among them who will act as models for their peers.

The “Start Ten” program is not a magic bullet but it has produced results among medical staff that have made some of them champions of our approach. There is no easy way to transition. In fact for ICD-10-PCS coding much judgment is needed because the coder has to create a procedure and must have a real understanding of the clinical and anatomical connections.

“Start Ten” also works with billers to help them understand what it is that has taken place that can now become a claim.

About HSMN
For over 27 years HSMN has worked with medical staff in every major medical and academic medical center to improve the quality of the documentation and ultimately the resulting revenue and reduction in denials.

Please contact us by phone 866-908-4226 or email info@hsmn.com for a consultation.