Seven findings on the transformation to the ICD-10

in accordance to the company's CEO and founder, Seth Avery.

Mr. Avery shared the preliminary research outcomes during the Healthcare Financial Management Association Region 5 meeting on the day of March 21 in Nashville, Tenn.

AppRev declared at the start of the month February that it has established a metrics study for a "look back" on the 1^st quarter of ICD-10 implementation.

Mr. Avery claims that the company performed its own study to comprehend how the conversion to ICD-10 has impacted its clients and other hospitals in the U.S. He also pointed out that hospitals can utilize the outcomes to comprehend how ICD-10 has affected their denial rate, particularly compared to similar facilities.

Nearly, 40 hospitals have responded with information to date. The information collected was compared for the last 3 months under ICD-9 (July-August 2015) to the first 3 months under ICD-10 (October-December 2015).

Here are 7 findings from the research:

1. The average for days of cash on hand indicated nearly no changes in any individual hospitals or on average.


2. The outcomes for discharged not final billed demonstrated a small spike in the moth of October but by the month of December had came back to the pre ICD-10 levels. Mr. Avery claims many experts had hoped a larger backlog in the coding increasing the DNFB.


3. Hospitals in the survey group appeared to be ready for the coding needs, in accordance to Mr. Avery. Various hospitals claimed that they "pushed" as much of the coding and billing through in the month of September to "clear the decks" for the month of October and ICD-10. This may account for smaller spike than was anticipated, Mr. Avery stated.


4. Net days in accounts receivables indicated no material change throughout the time for the reporting hospitals.


5. Authorization denials demonstrated little change. Mr. Avery claims this reflected cooperation between contributors and payers in transitioning denials that were previously granted in ICD-9 and permitting them to still be valid after the day of Oct. 1.


6. George Vancore of Florida Blue presented with Mr. Avery at the day of March 21 HFMA meeting, and told participants that Florida Blue decided to permit authorizations gained under ICD-9 to "flow through" their system after Oct. 1.


7. Medical necessity denials, although, were up across the board with various hospitals reporting a doubling of these denials, AppRev discovered. Mr. Avery claims numerous contributors demonstrated that errors in Medicare national coverage determinations may have been an important cause of that rate and may decrease in the near future and extra issues with local coverage determinations may also be a short-term cause.

Based on its findings, AppRev has founded that the affect of the ICD-10 is not completely known at this time.

The company pointed out the changes in benefits in the month of January may also affect the results for hospitals, and results could change as the CMS needs for increased specificity is implemented in the month of October 2016 and changes in payer edits continue.

Hence, AppRev will sustain to collect information and report quarterly on the results, in accordance to Mr. Avery. The company's target is to increase the sample size and potentially report by state and hospital size.