Siemens Healthcare, HLI partner to offer ICD-10 remediation services

Health Language, Inc. (HLI), the global leader in healthcare terminology management, today announced its partnership with Siemens Healthcare, Malvern, Pa., to offer enterprise-wide ICD-10 remediation services. Through this collaboration, Siemens customers will be able to meet ICD-10 compliance more efficiently by using HLI's LEAP I-10 tool.    

In January 2009, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) mandated an industry-wide transition from the ICD-9 to the ICD-10 procedure coding system used for recording diagnoses, with an initial deadline of October 1, 2013, which is now under consideration for a one-year extension. The new coding system includes more robust, specific codes for diagnoses, which could lead to improved documentation and care. Hospitals and health systems that have not transitioned by the specified deadline risk losing or delaying reimbursement and experiencing significant productivity losses.

"The transition to ICD-10 will greatly impact everyone in the healthcare industry because the specificity of these codes could enable providers to offer better, more comprehensive patient care that can lead to more accurate reimbursements," said Stephen Garver, vice president, consulting, Siemens Healthcare. "We've worked closely with HLI to determine the skill sets and applications that providers need for a successful ICD-10 implementation, and this partnership enables us to offer comprehensive, proven solutions to bolster our client's efforts in transitioning."

Siemens selected HLI as a partner in part because of its wide reach and long-standing relationships with leading payers in preparing them for ICD-10. The lessons learned from partnerships with large payer networks, such as WellPoint, have given HLI an in-depth understanding of payer dynamics and their impact on the ICD-10 implementation process that will help providers more successfully meet this opportunity. Through these payer relationships, HLI's services impact more than 100 million people. Combined with Siemens' industry expertise, hospitals and health systems have the opportunity to fully prepare themselves for the ICD-10 transition and beyond.

As a result of implementing the LEAP I-10 software, Siemens customers are able to:

• Take advantage of readily available tools to prepare for the proposed October 1, 2014, ICD-10 compliance deadline;
• Capture the maximum, correct reimbursements from payers;
• Use provider-friendly terminology content sets to convert terms to ICD-10, SNOMED and other standards that will help improve overall quality of patient care; and
• Transition smoothly from ICD-9 to ICD-10 code sets across the entire enterprise.

"By combining Siemens' operational expertise with HLI's advanced ICD-10 tools and solutions, we're able to create a platform from which Siemens users can transition quickly and smoothly over the next two years," said George Schwend, CEO and president of HLI. "This partnership demonstrates the importance of moving forward with comprehensive ICD-10 preparation, in spite of the recent compliance delay, and will ensure that providers are able to face challenges associated with the transition head on."