QuadraMed announces the launch of its ICD-10 Countdown Program

Oct 5 2009

QuadraMed^® Corporation (NASDAQ:QDHC), a leading provider of healthcare information technologies and services that help turn quality care into positive financial outcomes, today announced the launch of its ICD-10 Countdown Program. This new program includes the Quantim^® ICD-10 Coding Simulator software, ICD-10 educational tools and services to guide healthcare providers through the ICD-10 conversion.

The Quantim ICD-10 Coding Simulator will be available for hands-on demonstrations at the 81st AHIMA Convention & Exhibit taking place October 3-8, 2009 in Grapevine, Texas. Pre-conference interest in the new product has been high, with almost 100 requests for product demonstrations of the coding simulator. AHIMA’s e-HIM^® Virtual Laboratory, funded by the organization’s research and education Foundation, is using QuadraMed’s ICD-10 Coding Simulator throughout the year to train coding students, reaching approximately 170 schools and over 4,000 students nationwide. QuadraMed was the first in the industry to deploy an ICD-10 Coding Simulator for coder training in the e-HIM Virtual Lab.

According to the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, ICD-10 implementation has the potential to surpass Y2K in both total impact and cost as it drives the evolution of the global healthcare system. “AHIMA’s adoption of our ICD-10 Countdown Program delivers a strong message to health information management (HIM) professionals that it’s critical to begin now to ensure a successful ICD-10 transition – a transition that will impact almost all clinical, financial and HIM systems in use today,” said Duncan W. James, president and CEO of QuadraMed. “Our ICD-10 Countdown Program provides coders with the hands-on training and educational services required to gain familiarity with the new ICD-10 coding methodology.”

QuadraMed’s ICD-10 Countdown Program provides clients access to software, training and educational tools to assist with the transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 code sets. QuadraMed’s ICD-10 Countdown Program includes:

• Quantim^® ICD-10 Coding Simulator with an introductory 90-day subscription
• ICD-10 fundamentals educational tool
• Online application tutorial, “Countdown to ICD-10”
• Participation in QuadraMed’s ICD-10 community bulletin board

The U.S. healthcare industry has used ICD-9 Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) code sets to encode diagnoses and procedures since the late 1970s. Per the Senate Bill 628, the United States will finally adopt the ICD-10 system, which has already been implemented worldwide with the exception of the United States. U.S. healthcare organizations must now convert from ICD-9 to ICD-10 by the compliance date of October 1, 2013 or risk losing claims reimbursement from The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

The challenge of the ICD-10 transition lies within its complexity and dramatic increase in the number of code sets. For example, the number of disease classifications will rise from 13,000 ICD-9-CM to 68,000 ICD-10-CM codes. For procedure classifications, the number of codes will expand from 3,000 ICD-9-PCS to 78,000 ICD-10 PCS codes.

“The transition to ICD-10 will allow healthcare organizations to capture greater documentation detail for coding, resulting in increased accuracy in data reporting and reimbursement, as well as consistent compliance with regulatory and quality reporting requirements. As all U.S. hospitals will be required to make this coding conversion, QuadraMed foresees an increased demand for our products and services as healthcare organizations look to us to help them assess their readiness, train staff and implement ICD-10 compliant solutions,” added James.

The ICD-10 Countdown Program will be available to hospitals, medical groups, consultants and medical coding groups within the United States.