Collaborative Testing Program (CTP)
Waltham, MA – The Massachusetts Health Data Consortium – a statewide consortium of health care providers, healthplans,industry associations, government agencies, and health technology services companies – announced the launch of its ICD-10 Collaborative Testing Program to reduce the significant time, costs and risks associated withICD-10 compliance for the state’s health care industry.
The Collaborative Testing Program (CTP), conducted in partnership with the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative and Edifecs, provides a structured,effective, and low-cost ICD-10 testing solution to the state’s healthcare payers and providers.
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services has set Oct. 1, 2014 as the deadline for health care providers and payers to comply with new International Classification of Diseases (ICD) coding standards. ICD-10 is a revision to the ICD-9 system used by health care providers to classify and code all diagnoses, symptoms and procedures documented in clinical care in the United States. This revision encompasses more than 68,000 diagnostic codes, compared to the 13,000 found in ICD-9. It also includes twice as many clinical categories and introduces alphanumeric category classifications for the first time.
“It’s essential for plans and providers to test their ability to send and receive ICD-10-affected information successfully, but the switch to ICD-10 entails risks to operational efficiency and financial stability as well,” said Denny Brennan, the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium. “MHDC’s partnership with the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative and Edifecs provides plans and providers a complete testing solution that balances collaboration and confidentiality to minimize the technical, operational and financial risks of ICD-10.”
“Teaming with MHDC and Edifecs has created a governance, technical, and management foundation for statewide collaborative testing that will benefit providers, payers, and patients across the Commonwealth”, said Micky Tripathi, CEO of the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative. “We are delighted to provide management and implementation support to the statewide ICD-10 Collaborative Testing Program.”
“The success of any large-scale, complex technology initiative depends upon meticulous planning and testing,” said Sunny Singh, Edifecs CEO. “The immense scope of ICD-10 demands even greater preparation. We’re honored to partner with the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium and its Collaborative Testing Project to ensure that participating health plans and providers have the tools to meet the October 1 deadline with minimal risk, and successfully position them for the post-transition period.”
About the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium
The Massachusetts Health Data Consortium, founded in 1978, is a not-for-profit organization working to address the myriad innovations in technology, data and analytics, health care delivery, finance, and public policy that will advance the value of health care in the Commonwealth for years to come. Its membership spans the state’s health care providers, health plans, life sciences organizations, industry associations and not-for-profits, state and federal health agencies, and healthcare technology and services organizations. Visit www.mahealthdata.org.
About the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative
The Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative is a national leader in the facilitation and management of electronic health record deployment, health information exchange and quality measure reporting. MAeHC is an independent non-profit corporation with a charitable mission to improve the delivery of health care by promoting the use of health IT. Formed in 2004 as a collaboration of non-profit health care stakeholders to demonstrate the most effective ways to deploy EHRs and HIE to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and affordability of care in Massachusetts, MAeHC now works across the United States with a wide range of physician practices, hospitals, state governments, contracting networks, management services organizations, HIE organizations, technology vendors, and consulting firms. To learn more about the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative, please visit www.maehc.org.
About Edifecs
An industry leader since 1996, Edifecs provides healthcare software solutions that improve operational performance by streamlining the exchange of information among health plans, hospitals, and other healthcare organizations, while enabling compliance with current mandates such as HIPAA, Operating Rules and ICD-10. Today, more than 250 healthcare customers use Edifecs technology to unify transactions from any information channel source and input mechanism, while automating manual business processes such as enrollment, claims and payments management. Edifecs is headquartered in Bellevue, WA. For more information, please visit www.edifecs.com.