Our July 19 Health TechNet meeting was at TeqCorner in McLean, VA.
Our feature topic was exploring the implementation of ICD-10 now scheduled for October 1, 2014, and the many issues this poses especially for providers. (For more information on ICD-10, here is one of many available links: http://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/ICD10/index.html?redirect=/icd10. To help us understand what ICD-10 portends for the provider side of the industry, we had speakers from Accenture who are dealing with this challenge on behalf of many clients, speakers from Virginia Hospital Center who are busily preparing for it, and members of the management team from Fairfax Neonatal Associates, a technologically advanced medical group that provides NICU services at Inova as well as a number of outpatient services to newborns and infants.
We also discussed the recent decision by the Obama Administration to postpone for one year the requirement that employers provide health insurance coverage under the ACA or face financial penalties. Many were asking what this foretells about the implementation of other parts of the ACA, including health insurance exchanges.